Moroccan bloggers were surprised to discover they could no longer open YouTube on Friday and promptly launched online forums to speculate about whether the site had been censured.

Some Internet users were skeptical that a technical problem was to blame, noting that the site went down after people posted videos critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control of in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew.

“The government should not interfere in free media,” said Hicham, a member of a pro-democracy NGO who only gave his first name. “If Morocco is to be a practicing democracy, this sort of thing shouldn't happen.”