If you live in the UAE and happen to swear at your friends, colleagues or relatives using WhatsApp, you need to exercise plenty of caution now as chances are you will be fined a whopping Rs 45 lakh for this’crime.’
And if you are unlucky, you may have to face jail or deportation in case you are a foreigner living in this gulf country.
The new law has been brought into force after the UAE’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial of man originally fined $800 for the same crime on the grounds that the fine was too ‘lenient.’
The man in question was found guilty of swearing at his colleague using the instant messaging app.
A report published in 7days UAE said that it was not clear as to what that exact word was. The court had not revealed the swear word used by this man. It simply said that they were ‘insulting.’
The case against the man was brought under a new cyber crime law, introduced in October last year. Under the new law, verbal abuse using online platforms is a criminal offence in the UAE.
In May, the UAE authorities had warned that sending a middle finger emoji symbol would henceforth be a punishable offence.
