Jail, Dh1m fine for spreading rumours in UAE

Under Federal Legal Decree No 5 for 2012 on combating cybercrimes, spreading rumours “damaging social peace and public order” and causing damage to “national peace” empowers the UAE government to prosecute concerned individuals. Article 29 of the Federal Legal Decree No 5 for 2012 states those proven guilty face imprisonment and a civil fine not exceeding Dh1 million.

Other countries in the West have similar laws governing the dissemination of data that could cause harm to national security.

Spreading rumours used to be considered fairly harmless, but with the emergence of ‘twitteratis’ and compulsive Facebook users, it has now acquired a fairly dangerous hue.

 With 240 million Twitter users worldwide, 500 million tweets being sent around the world each day and 1.23 billion Facebook users globally, viral content is unpredictable.

Users might not even be aware that they are party to a concerted misinformation campaign when they forward a chain mail without so much as putting a thought to it. It might be of a salacious nature, fibbing about an individual or it may be disguised as news of social importance that might actually destabilise the community — related to mystery illnesses, epidemics etc or cause people to press the panic button (in case of news related to stock market movements etc).

What you need to remember always is that anything that you have not personally verified to be true can be construed as rumour-mongering and it is your responsibility to nip that trend in the bud by refusing to be party to it.

Rumours related to 9/11 conspiracy theories, misinformation about the spread of certain infectious diseases and recently those related to the ill-fated MH370 have only served to damage information-gathering on these issues and spread panic in the community.

Authorities in the UAE have been running a sustained campaign to create awareness about such pitfalls of social media. Lt Colonel Awad Saleh Al Kindi, Editor-in-Chief of 999, the official Ministry of Interior Magazine explained: “There have been cases in the past where residents caught using social media to spread malicious rumours faced jail term or fine, or both. The UAE authorities will seriously deal with false news spread via social media harming UAE society.

“We encourage UAE residents to educate themselves first and verify any information that they receive. To safeguard the country’s safety and security, the UAE has put in place strict laws, which include criminal charges and/or fines for damaging social peace and public order. These laws are deterrent in spreading rumours or false information on social media and the internet.” Gulf News