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Monday, July 14, 2014

UAE’s TRA publishes Twitter White Paper

On Sunday (July 13), the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) launched a white paper regarding Twitter usage as part of "The UAE Social Media White Papers" collection.

The series of awareness documents are designed specifically to highlight the terms and conditions of the most popular social networks in use in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The latest release focuses on Twitter, which has around 360,000 users in the UAE who share around 2.5 million tweets per day…

The Twitter White Paper says: The laws of the UAE prohibit the publication of content which is contrary to public morals, the principles of Islam and the social and moral welfare of the UAE or any content that contains irreverence towards Islam and any other heavenly religions.

The content must also respect the UAE Government, its leadership, political institutions and ultimately the UAE’s cultural heritage and social norms and customs.

In reference to Twitter, the white paper highlights the following information as a priority for all respective subscribers:

Initially, users must not publish direct, specific threats of violence against mothers. This also includes hate speeches, and content that is threatening or contains graphic or gratuitous violence or any content that is offensive for a nation or its government. Users should think carefully about the content they are posting.

Users are responsible for the content they post and should bear this in mind if they are posting content which they do not own or which contains material that is subject to someone else’s rights.

Also, users must not publish other people’s private information without their consent.

The social networks included in “The UAE Social Media White Papers”’ collection are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Yahoo/Flickr, LinkedIn, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Store, Blackberry and Keek.


Full versions of the white papers and the corresponding infographics are accessible via the TRA’s official website: http://www.tra.gov.ae/WhitePaper/twitter.php.