Social Media Restrictions in the UAE

Social Media Restrictions in the UAE

  During an event held by Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) at American University in Washington, Ahmed Mansour, award-winning Emirati human rights defender, presented his own case as a target of UAE surveillance and harassment.

Recently, Mansour was a victim of a hacking attempt. Citizen Lab, an organization in Canada, discovered the hacking technology, bought by the Emirati government from an Israeli organization costing one million dolalrs. As soon Citizen Lab discovered the spyware, they contacted Apple. In response, Apple updated its software and alerted its customers.

The hacking technology, if activated, jailbroke Mansour’s iPhone 6 remotely and installed sophisticated software. Citizen Lab writes “once infected, Mansour’s phone would have become a digital spy in his pocket, capable of employing his iPhone’s camera and microphone to snoop on activity in the vicinity of the device, recording his WhatsApp and Viber calls, logging messages sent in mobile chat apps, and tracking his movements.”

Mansour also spoke about how money was withdrawn from his bank account and his car was stolen after a prosecution hearing; he believes this could be the work of Emirati officials. He recalled a time when the United Nations Special Rapporteur was present with him on a visit to discuss the situation of human rights in the UAE, and their car was followed by unidentified agents. Due to the UAE government’s extensive surveillance of Mansour, he no longer uses phone calls to communicate and uses other social media at great risk.

 

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