A man has been arrested in the UAE for a comedy internet video in which he dresses up as an Emirati and pretends to buy flashy cars with wads of cash.
According to the state WAM news agency, the UAE resident was accused of posting “propaganda that stirs up public opinion and harms the public interest.”
The Federal Prosecution for Combating Rumours and Cybercrime ordered his detention pending investigations. He was also charged with “insulting Emirati society” by publishing content that “insults the Emirati society.”
As a man arrested In UAE, according to WAM, he is from an Asian country and is dressed in traditional Emirati robes as he enters a luxury car showroom with two assistants carrying a large tray of cash.
Speaking English with a Gulf Arab accent, he requests the most expensive car and then rejects it, claiming that it is too expensive at 2.2 million dirhams (nearly $600,000).
“I need expensive, brother,” he says, tossing stacks of cash to store clerks and ordering four pricey cars, including a Rolls-Royce, in a matter of seconds.
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The video “reveals impudence and a lack of appreciation for the value of money in a way that promotes a false and offensive mental image of Emirati citizens and mocks them,” according to the WAM report.
The owner of the car showroom was also summoned by the Public Prosecution Office, which urged social media users to “consider societal characteristics and embedded values of the UAE society… in order to avoid falling under the force of the law.”
The laws prohibiting the spread of “rumors” and false information in the UAE keep a tight grip on internet discourse in the oil-rich Gulf monarchy.
Last month, a woman received a six-month suspended prison sentence after posting a video of an exchange at a UAE book fair with a Kuwaiti author who was imprisoned in the US for sex offenses.
The woman was also fined 60,000 AED ($16,000) for invasion of privacy and insults, and her Twitter account was “permanently closed,” according to WAM at the time.
In January 2021, the Public Prosecution summoned several people for sharing social media footage of a Yemeni rebel attack on Abu Dhabi.
