A man in the UAE has been fined a hefty amount for threatening to share a woman’s private photos on Facebook.

In another case of legal consequence over social media sharing in the UAE, a man has been ordered to pay Dhs250,000 for threatening to post a woman’s private photos on Facebook.

The Sharia Court in Sharjah found the Arab man guilty of threatening to defame the woman, who is from the Gulf. 

The 29-year-old woman’s lawyer told Gulf News that the pair met on a social media network. After the relationship developed the woman sent the 30-year-old man photos via social media.

The man then reportedly blackmailed the woman by threatening to share her photos publicly on Facebook if she didn’t respond to his wishes. What those wishes are haven’t been publicly clarified. The Sharjah court ruling in this latest case was delivered on Thursday September 22.

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This comes after the UAE government warned people that spreading false rumours online could lead to a prison sentence of up to three years. The penalty can be imposed on those who knowingly spread rumours or false data that could harm the public interest or disturb the peace.

The government says the issue is being taken so seriously because rumours can damage an economy, threaten public security, and just generally spread terror and fear through society.

ANOTHER CASE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FINES

In April an Emirati woman was fined Dhs500,000 for comments she made to her uncle over messaging service Whatsapp.

The woman, who is 53 and a teacher, was charged in the Dubai courts under new UAE hate crime laws for using hateful language in an exchange with her uncle, 60, according to 7Days. 

She was also charged with insulting Islamic scholar Yazid Bin Muawiya, who lived 1,400 years ago in the Whatsapp exchange with her uncle (which began in November 2015 and ended in January 2016).

According to 7Days the woman admitted the charges, but claimed she had financially supported her uncle for 29 years but that he abandoned her after she developed cancer.

“He didn’t see or look after me,” she is reported to have said. “And now he is fighting me over a will. He deserved what I said to him. A person who sends his niece to court is not a man.”

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