In one video, with more than 40,000 views, Didi nonchalantly walks across a Swedish car park while describing his passage into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. In front of several big lorries, he points to where in the truck you can hide and likely survive, how much time crossing takes and which vehicles are better as hideouts for people hoping to enter Europe.
Since 2017, we have come across over two dozen accounts like Didi’s on YouTube – of people from North Africa migrating to Europe and beyond using irregular and often dangerous means, and passing that knowledge onto other users, while blogging about their lives. As this virtual community has grown, online platforms have fostered an ecosystem for migratory networks, central to which are personalities such as Didi and their relatively unfiltered content, standing in contrast with Morocco’s heavily state-dominated media landscape. Some of the most popular accounts have 100,000 followers on YouTube and 40,000 on Instagram.
the stakes are much higher when what you’re promoting is irregular migration.
Violent rioters = peaceful protesters
Illegal migration = irregular migration