Dubai: Police will not monitor social networking websites looking for abuse or defamation as this would be a violation of personal freedom, a top official said yesterday.
Maj Gen Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police, denied media reports claiming that electronic patrol teams would track all topics and materials written and presented on websites such as Twitter and Facebook.
"People have liberties and we respect them. We only step in when there is a complaint or a crime calling for our intervention to investigate and arrest suspects, but we are not a control authority," he said. As for electronic patrol teams, Al Mazeina said these were tasked with interaction with various websites, not snooping on people's personal accounts.
Pre-empting blackmail
"They interact with and follow up chat rooms, forums, and other websites to make sure people do not use them to lure or blackmail others," he said, adding that there is a difference between following up and monitoring.
"We are not concerned with people's private lives and have never played the part of a control authority," he said. If a person files a complaint against another for defaming or abusing him on a networking website, police probe the case in line with legal measures.
"In this case, we can inspect the suspect's account and his computer as provided by the criminal procedures law," he added.
Earlier, Major Salem Obaid Salmeen, deputy director of anti-electronic crimes at Dubai Police's CID, had said that security bodies in the UAE would implement round-the-clock monitoring of social networking websites.
Speaking on Rouh Al Qanoon programme on Noor Dubai radio, Salmeen said monitoring these websites was not a violation of people's personal freedom as the information they post on their accounts is public.
