Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa announced on Sunday taking tough steps to deal with what he described as unprecedented chaos by disruptive social media accounts. He said such accounts spread malicious rumours that go against social harmony and civil peace, adding that security authorities would tackle any offence against national and traditional values.

These measures, announced by the Minister, came after a dispute emerged between the bureau of Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and his supporters on the one hand and the Royal Court and its supporters on the other, to the public, as each entity has made Twitter accounts with aliases such as "Na'eb Ta'eb" and others, via which accusations and scandals involving each party were exchanged.

The Minister said that some disruptive social media accounts claimed they were run by the Royal Court while it had been proved they were operated through malicious websites and had no links with the Royal Court or any other official organisation in Bahrain. He said "the Royal Court is an official authority that functions to implement the directives of His Majesty the King in regard of supervising all constitutional organisations in the Kingdom to ensure they followed constitutional provisions in the best interests of the nation and its citizens. Thus, it is above any cyber activity against the norms and traditions of Bahrain whereas those accounts are destructive and not constructive."

He explained that those accounts are being monitored since they relied on inaccurate information about individuals and organisations and stood against the interests of the internal front. He further stated that the operators of some of those accounts had been identified and others would continue to be pursued. "We won't be far from tracking them down and taking legal action against them even if we need to draft new legislation to tackle the latest developments in such crimes with their negative effects on members of society and the national fabric."

The Interior Minister added that "there would be a follow-up and steps would be taken to hold them accountable in accordance with the law to stop their violation and misuse of the social media." He also stressed it "was unfortunate that social media had been turned into a place to spread sedition and rumours rather than to strengthen community bonds."

He called on the citizens to ignore malicious social media accounts and their abusive rumours and claims against Arab and Islamic traditions and stressed on the need to obtain information from official sources.

Arabic Version