Instagram post without consent costs woman Dh50,000 in Abu Dhabi
Unauthorised Instagram photo leads to costly privacy ruling in UAE
Abu Dhabi: A woman in Abu Dhabi has been ordered to pay Dh50,000 ($13,600) in compensation after ruling that she violated another woman’s privacy by publishing her photograph on Instagram without consent.
The Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Cases Court found that the defendant had unlawfully used information technology to publish the image without the approval of the claimant and outside the circumstances permitted by law, Al Khaleej newspaper reported.
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According to court records, the claimant filed a civil lawsuit seeking Dh100,000 in compensation for material and moral damages resulting from an unlawful act that caused psychological distress, reputational harm and social embarrassment. She also requested legal interest on the compensation and reimbursement of legal costs.
The civil case followed a criminal ruling in which the defendant was convicted, fined Dh50,000, ordered to delete the images immediately and banned from using online networks for three months.
The court said the actions of the defendant had caused proven moral harm by infringing the claimant’s privacy and personal dignity. The judgment noted that the unauthorised publication of the image exposed the claimant to psychological pain, social embarrassment and a sense of personal violation due to the nature of social media platforms, where content can be widely shared and circulated.
In its reasoning, the court said such non-material harm cannot be assessed according to a fixed financial standard but must instead be determined based on the circumstances of each case, including the seriousness of the act, the extent of the harm and the causal link between the wrongful act and the damage suffered.
The court concluded that financial compensation was necessary to redress the harm suffered, stating that Dh50,000 represented fair and proportionate compensation without excess, given the nature of the violation and the confirmed moral damage resulting from the breach of privacy.
