Twitter shuts Emirates Lakes tweeter account due to UAE pressure
Twitter closed Emirates Lakes account, which was arbitrarily following tens of thousands under pressure from the UAE.
Emirates Lakes announced the launch of a new account for the site, stressing at the same time that it is unfortunate and shameful that Twitter continues to collude with the UAE system in violating freedom of opinion and expression and restricting the media in response to Abu Dhabi’s pressure.
Arab Twitter users have previously launched multiple electronic campaigns exposing the suppression of the Twitter office in Dubai, UAE, for freedom of expression, and demanding its closure because of Abu Dhabi’s black record of human rights violations.
The activists criticized the closing of the Twitter office in Dubai for accounts of Arab Spring activists, and the removal of badges against certain regimes in the region despite the large number of tweets on them, especially since the UAE in which the regional office is located is known for its hostility to freedom of opinion and expression, and its dark interventions in the Arab countries.
Activists in the campaign tweeted the tag “#wewillspeak”, which topped the list of the most widely circulated in Egypt and other Arab countries before they disappeared quickly, what the activists considered an intervention by the Twitter administration against them.
This is not the first time that a similar campaign has been launched. Rather, Twitter users have been stepping up their campaigns on the site to reject the recently-increasing repression. Early this month, the Twitter community launched a campaign calling for the transfer of the Twitter office from Dubai to another Arab country that guarantees the right to express an opinion.
This comes as criticism of social media continues, following its compliance with the laws and pressures of countries that have its headquarters, particularly in the Arab region. Perhaps “Twitter” has the largest share of these criticisms, because it is based in Dubai, and that it is predicated in the deletion of opposition accounts, and it maintains many “electronic flies” accounts affiliated with specific governments, and does not accept many reports on accounts that bully real and well-known personalities, the fact that Her language in the tweet itself is “intact.”
The frequency of these criticisms increased especially a year after the assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s consulate in Istanbul, on October 2, 2018, after the discovery of a spy for Saudi Arabia inside “Twitter”, and the spread of information about the delivery of the company to Saudi opponents.
“Impact”, Facebook and Twitter are forced to abide by policies imposed by governments in the Middle East in exchange for allowing them to provide their services within the borders of their countries, which seriously threatens the security and safety of their users, Impact said in a report last September. ”
Finally, “Twitter” witnessed several complaints about the manipulation of the list of the most frequently traded to delete opposition tags, the deletion of the accounts of opposition activists, in exchange for maintaining “electronic flies” accounts of governments, and the disappearance of famous tags, especially with the burning of tagging wars, coinciding with street movements. Arabi.
Not only in Arabic, but activists launched another tag directed to the Twitter department in English also: #StopTwitterMENAOffice or “Stop the Middle East Twitter office.”
As part of the campaign, the pioneers of communication platforms re-circulated reports that revealed the violations of the UAE government in the area of privacy with spy devices, most notably a report revealed by Reuters earlier this year in which it said that the UAE worked on a secret spying project called “Raven” or “black crow” targeting leaders Politicians and activists.
Activists criticize through the social media sites that comply with the laws and pressures of countries based in them, particularly in the Arab region, and activists circulated a report for “Impact” International for Human Rights Policies dating back to last September.
Over the past years, the UAE has been associated with coups, assassinations, plots and arrests, as has also emerged in cases of espionage and electronic surveillance, the most prominent of which was the use of the headquarters of the company “Twitter” in the Middle East located in Dubai to collect and monitor intelligence information.
