Abu Dhabi Prosecution has revealed a rise in social media cases since the beginning of this year until the end of October, reaching 512 cases, compared to 357 cases during the whole year last year, and attributed the first prosecutor, Amer Al Ameri, the reason for the high number of cases because of the increased use of these means and abuse of some, Make it a way to infringe on others and the privacy of others.

Al Ameri said during the 65th Media Forum of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, under the title «Social Media Between Abuse and the Law», that studies and statistics indicate that the UAE population uses social media at the rate of three hours a day, pointing out that the UAE population has 19.3 million Account on social media.

Al-Ameri pointed out that the crime of insulting and libel is considered the most crimes committed through social media, and in the second place crimes of electronic harassment, extortion comes in third place, and threatening and exploitation fourth, and then infringing on privacy to enter or seize or copy, publish, republish or abusive comment , Fictitious rumors, untrue rumors, incitement to violate laws and commit crimes, fraud, fraud and seizure of the property of others.

During the forum, al-Amiri presented three awareness films about the cases before the prosecution on the crimes of threats and extortion, soliciting children and spreading rumors.He pointed out that Article 30 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of opinion or expression in words, in writing and other means of expression, within the limits of the law. The use of social media ends when it infringes on the rights and freedoms of others.

He explained that reporting social networking crimes does not need to visit the police station, where the person can report through the application of the prosecution smart, noting that the prosecution when receiving complaints to investigate and act and delegate the Center for Criminal and Electronic Sciences, and the Emirates Center for electronic evidence to investigate the incident.

He pointed out that the penalties in these cases include imprisonment ranging from one year to life in some crimes, imprisonment from one month to three years, a fine of not less than 100,000 and not more than three million, in addition to deportation.

Prosecution recommendations

During the Media Forum, the Abu Dhabi Prosecutor recommended the need to inform the competent authorities about crimes and respect the privacy of others, and not to use social media platforms to offend others or abusive commentary on the actions of government or private entities, and to replace it with legally specified channels.

She stressed the importance of the role of the family in raising awareness and warning and monitoring and keen to provide and learn every new version in the information revolution and the Internet so that they can follow their children, and reduce the use of children to these technologies and involve them in external activities.

19.3

One million UAE social media accounts.