A British man has been charged under cyber-crime laws in Dubai for allegedly filming Iranian missiles over the city, UK authorities confirmed.
The 60-year-old man, reported to be a tourist, was charged under a law that prohibits publishing or sharing material that could disturb public security. “We are in contact with the local authorities following the detention of a British man in the UAE,” the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office told CNN.
Hey, look, I know we're getting bombed, but you know who our real enemies are? People who share pictures of it on social media. Let's put them in jail!
The penalty for breaching cybercrime laws in the UAE is a minimum of two years in prison, as well as a 200,000 UAE dirham (around $54,000) fine.
The way things are going in the UK, I would not be surprised if their embassy responds by writing a paper advising that such penalties be adopted in the UK as well (if they aren't already).
In a post on X, the UK Embassy in the UAE said: “UAE authorities warn against photographing, posting, or sharing images of incident sites or projectile damage as well as government buildings and diplomatic missions. British nationals are subject to UAE laws, violations may lead to fines, imprisonment, or deportation.”
In Ukraine it's illegal to film the actions of anti-air defense, and to film the consequences of recent air strikes (generally speaking). Both prohibitions have very valid military reasons as you're giving the enemy information that they can use to better attack you next time. And in practice, authorities are relatively lax about enforcing this in situations where the information isn't helpful. (Eg no-one minds if you film stuff that has already been widely reported and/or is old)
Sounds like the UAE is screwing this up by failing to have a good reason for the prohibitions. Totalitarian mindset.
Why I would never live in Dubai
I wonder how many tourists realize that UAE cybercrime laws are this strict. Could be easy to accidentally break them.