Jordanian YouTuber Joe Hattab recently commented on his videos documenting his trip to Algeria, made in May 2023. In one of his two videos dedicated to this visit, the vlogger discussed the Moroccan-Algerian border, as well as the cultural influence of Morocco on Western Algeria. Invited on the podcast «بدون ورق», he revealed that he had to delete the video from his platforms after receiving a call from the Algerian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. According to Joe Hattab, the diplomat contacted him to criticize the publication in question, which contained statements from Algerian citizens praising Morocco. For the official, these remarks were considered «politically oriented». «We granted you a visa and trusted you. Why did you do that?» the ambassador reportedly said, as echoed by the vlogger, whose channel has more than 13 million subscribers. However, the criticized video sparked a wave of positive reactions among Moroccan and Algerian internet users, Joe Hattab emphasizes. He believes that a certain political class in Algeria «had a different opinion and incited social media users» against him. The insults that Joe Hattab received on his Facebook page «forced him to delete the video, barely three hours after its publication». The vlogger confided that he removed this content also to avoid possible reprisals against Algerian nationals who had given him statements. However, Joe Hattab claims to still have a copy, which he could put back online after deleting the sequences that revived tensions on the Algerian political side. In this video, some statements by citizens of the eastern neighbor confirmed the importation of spices from Morocco or attributed the tagine and the caftan to the kingdom. The removed video also included statements from Algerians expressing their brotherhood towards their Moroccan neighbors or expressing a favorable opinion on the opening of the borders, which have been closed since 1994.
