A man was detained in the United Arab Emirates over a comedy internet video that showed him dressed as an Emirati and pretending to buy cars with wads of cash, AFP reported citing official media. The UAE resident was accused of posting “propaganda that stirs up the public opinion and harms the public interest”, the state WAM news agency said.
His detention was ordered by the Federal Prosecution for Combating Rumours and Cybercrimes as he was charged with publishing content that “insults the Emirati society”.
In the video, the man was filmed in traditional Emirati dress as he enters a luxury car showroom. He was accompanied by two assistants who were carrying a large tray of cash. The man is then heard asking for the highest-priced car and then rejects it, saying that at 2.2 million dirhams (nearly $600,000), it’s not expensive enough for him.
“I need expensive, brother,” the currently detained man said in the video throwing cash at the store assistants to buy coffee. The man then goes on to order four pricey cars including a Rolls-Royce.
The video “reveals impudence and lack of appreciation of the value of money, in a manner that promotes a wrong and offensive mental image of Emirati citizens and ridicules them”, the report said. The car showroom’s owner has also been summoned as authorities advised social media users to “consider societal characteristics and embedded values of the UAE society… so as to avoid falling under the force of the law”.
The UAE has strict laws for “rumors” and false information on social media. In January 2021, several people were summoned for sharing social media footage of a Yemeni rebel attack on Abu Dhabi.
His detention, pending investigations, was ordered by the Federal Prosecution for Combating Rumours and Cybercrimes. He was also charged with publishing content that “insults the Emirati society”.
Speaking English with a Gulf Arab accent, he asks for the highest-priced car and then rejects it, saying that at 2.2 million dirhams (nearly $600,000), it’s not expensive enough.
The Public Prosecution Office also summoned the car showroom’s owner, and urged social media users to “consider societal characteristics and embedded values of the UAE society… so as to avoid falling under the force of the law” (and getting detained.)
Last month, a woman was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after she posted a video of an exchange at a UAE book fair with a Kuwaiti author who had been imprisoned in the United States over sex offenses.
The woman was also fined a total of 60,000 AED ($16,000) for invasion of privacy and insults, and had her Twitter account “permanently closed”, WAM reported at the time.
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