Dubai: A new application on Facebook which allows users to maintain a list of enemies — like friends — has sparked off a heated debate in the UAE.

While many youngsters think the application called EnemyGraph is ‘cool', parents have their own reservations. Experts say it's a sign of the times, even as there are fears that it may feed a needless hate culture with smear campaigns finding a new expression. But those behind it claim it's another way of connecting people — not based on affinities this time — in a country where 50 per cent of the population uses the platform.

The new application is available for free and allows Facebook users to add enemies to their profiles, including people from friends' lists or from other users. Once a person is declared an enemy, he/she will be visible on the enemies' list, which can be seen by all other users. "Most social networks attempt to connect people based on affinities, but people are also connected and motivated by things they dislike, which joins them in ways not usually supported by social media platforms," states the website http://enemygraph.com

Venting anger

Developed by a research group at the University of Texas in Dallas, the application has been described as "social media blasphemy" with the developer predicting that Facebook may remove the application. There are already reports about a petition signed by three million users who had pressed for an ‘Unlike' button on Facebook.

"This is so cool," said a 17-year-old Class XII Indian student in Dubai. "It's a great way of letting someone know you don't like what they said or did." However, Salma, mother of two teenage girls, said: "It amounts to fostering a hate culture."

Dr Rory McCarthy, Dubai-based clinical psychologist, said, "In the olden days, tribal communities .... would create statues of their enemies and bang at them to vent their anger. The new enemy application is likely to be used by people who are full of anger and hatred and by those who are not well-adjusted within themselves or societies. But declaring anger in such ways can be damaging with reconciliation becoming difficult." Expert sociologist Dr Rima Sabban said market values were overtaking human values. "We must elevate human values over market considerations," she said.