Control of the illegal content of social media in UAE and comparative law

The emergence and the spread of the electronic means of publishing and expression, especially social network sites have been accompanied by many of wrong practices that have been infringed on the rights of others. This takes different forms sometimes it is an attack on the religious organization or ethical community. This attack may be directed against individuals or the community as well. On the light of these dangers, which constitute the illegal content of the means of social media , the legislator must intervene in order to provide the necessary protection for society and individuals against these dangers. Therefore, most countries have begun to find means of control over social media, similar to the traditional publishing methods such as journalism, radio and television. As far as the particularity of social media sites are concerned as a means of publication and expression of opinion, there are many ways and types of censorship. The private censorship appeared by the responsible institutions for providing and connecting the Internet service to individuals and public and private bodies or exercised this control by companies based on social network sites themselves. In addition, there is the general control exercised by government bodies, and these bodies are essentially determined in the United States and the European Union in the judicial bodies. In the United Arab Emirates, we find that the legal framework for the control of the media includes a number of legislations governing this issue. The law is by Federal Decree No. (1) of 2006, authorized the Council to follow up the media content of everything printed material of what is imported from abroad as well as the Law of Press and Publication No. (15) for the year 1980. This study attempts to determine the effectiveness of censorship on the means of social media in the UAE compared to the situation in other countries.