A European decision to restrict the export of censorship technologies for repressive regimes includes the UAE
Informed sources revealed that the European Union’s decision to restrict the export of control technologies to repressive regimes would include the UAE. Abu Dhabi has been officially informed of this.
The sources told Emirates Leaks that responsible authorities in the European Union have informed the Emirates of the difficulty of concluding any future deals that include advanced control techniques.
The sources explained that the decision comes in light of what the European state’s export crisis raises, means and techniques that allow tracking and monitoring opponents and activists in repressive regimes, including the Arab ones, criticizing institutions, human rights organizations and political parties in Europe.
The demands for a complete cessation of the export of these technologies, especially those manufactured in Europe, came after killing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in the fall of 2018.
Some parties pushed cooperation between the left (including the Greens) and the centre-left (the Social Democratic bloc) to take strict measures on this matter during the coming summer, especially after revealing the role of European technologies in suppressing the Arab Spring revolutions.
After ten years of European technology, including Italian, French, German, and Israeli, contributed to the suppression of the Arab Spring protests, the Europeans go to a settlement, after the initial vote, at the end of last month, on a resolution that posed a dilemma for the Europeans, according to what European reports revealed.
The new settlement, which is expected to be formally adopted by the European Council during the summer and applied immediately, will include preventing private companies that already need security approvals to export sensitive technologies at least in Denmark, and the public sector, from exporting dual-use technology, except after an evaluation has been conducted.
Between 2015 and 2016, a year after theoretically tightening the law, European Union countries issued 317 export approvals for digital surveillance technologies.
According to Freedom House, 17 per cent of the approvals were toward countries designated free.
Last month, an international index ranked the UAE as a repressive, non-free country.
The index exposed the reality of the tyranny of the UAE regime, as it awarded the state only 17 points out of a hundred points in light of the lack of political rights and civil liberties.
The UAE did not score any points in the index in most rankings, most notably elections, political pluralism and freedom of expression.
Freedom House highlighted that about 90 per cent of the UAE population lack political rights and electoral opportunities.
The Foundation documented the lack of transparency in the work of the UAE government, criticizing the influence of senior members of the ruling families to protect themselves and their partners from public oversight.
