The Emirates Telecommunications Regulatory Authority blocked 1688 violating websites during 2019, a decrease of 63.5%, compared to 2659 sites that were blocked in 2018.

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According to Al-Ittihad, the telecommunications regulatory authority blocked these websites, due to the violation of the content that it tried to pass on to the public in the country, and in contravention of the policy of the telecommunications authority and operators in the use of the Internet.


The list of prohibited content to be published on the Internet in the UAE includes all articles that incite racial discrimination, defamation of religions, terrorism, immoral, slander and defamation, as well as sites of illegal communications services, and those that violate intellectual property rights, electronic fraud and other infringing sites To the law.


According to statistics issued by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, 542 sites have been blocked, the content of which is inconsistent with public morals, constituting approximately 32% of the total sites blocked during the year 2019.


As for the websites that tried to practice fraud and electronic fraud, which were blocked during the past year, they numbered 436 sites, constituting 25.8% of the total websites, while 253 sites were blocked that tried to bypass the blocking system and access to prohibited content.


The rest of the blocked sites are distributed among those that have attempted to provide illegal telecommunications services, or illegal activities.


It is noteworthy that the authority follows a clear policy regarding access to the Internet, which includes an approved list of categories of prohibited content, in coordination with operators in the telecommunications sector, and the authority also relies on public communications in blocking websites that violate the law.