Human Rights makes fun of the top social networking summit in Dubai

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned several Twitter tweets by announcing the launch of the Arab Social Connect Leaders Summit, while many activists remain in jail for unruly tweets.

"Will a booklet (how to be chased without going to jail?) Be distributed to participants," the organization said in a scathing editorial.

"The conference celebrates the role of influencers on social media in Dubai, while the true influencers are being held in UAE jails because of publications on Facebook, a farce," she said in another editorial.

Human Rights Watch said the conference would have had little credibility if the UAE had not imprisoned Ahmed Mansour and other activists on charges of "using social networking sites."

"Ahmed Mansour, Usama al-Najjar and Nasser bin Ghaith are influential in the media, but they will not participate in this summit because they are behind the bars because of their twitterings that the UAE authorities did not like."

In October, Human Rights Watch issued a statement confirming that the UAE was investing a lot of time and money to portray itself as a progressive and tolerant state, but in fact "authoritarian and lacking fundamental respect for the rule of law."

The statement pointed to the escalation of government repression in the UAE since 2011, as the authorities have committed continuous attacks on freedom of expression and association, and the detention and prosecution of peaceful critics and political opponents and human rights activists and academics arbitrarily.