المواجهة الجنائية لجريمة نشر الأخبار الكاذبة عبر وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي دراسة تطبيقية على دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة

Although the main goal of social network websites is to facilitate the process of communication among humans in an inexpensive way, and the exchange of views and knowledge and the exercise of expression right; however, the reality has revealed that some users of these websites have used them as a means to commit crimes of defamation, insult, extortion and violation of public morals.The most important matter in these crimes is the use of social media to spread rumors, destabilize national security, starting with incitement to gatherings and disobeying laws, ending with committing terrorist acts. Hence, it was necessary to search for criminal responsibility for the crimes of spreading rumors through social network websites. The federal legislator of United Arab Emirates was interested in criminalizing such acts in Federal Law No. (34) of 2021 regarding combating rumors and cybercrimes. The study focused on highlighting the crimes that can occur through social network websites, where the criminal can commit crimes and cause victimization with simple efforts, with the possibility of hiding electronic evidence that proves his commission of the crime through social network websites.The study also highlighted the mechanisms of combating this new type of crime, as the general objective of the study was to identify the criminal confrontation for the crime of spreading false news through social media, through an applied study on United Arab Emirates. The study used descriptive analytical approach which is based on analyzing the texts of law that dealt with the criminalization of this phenomenon in Emirati legislation. In addition, it used inductive approach in order to extrapolate and elicit legal provisions related to the subject of the study, of which one of the most important results was the presence of an increase in the rates of committing crimes of spreading false news through social network websites and the accompanying dire repercussions on all segments of society. The study concluded several recommendations, the most important of which were:Toughening the penalty for spreading rumors and false news as mentioned in Article 52 of Law 34 of 2021 with imprisonment for a period not exceeding 5 years and a fine of no more than AED 500,000, similar to the penalty for spreading rumors on websites, as stipulated in Article 25 of the same law, with the need to withhold all websites that promote false news using modern technologies and directing security services to develop a comprehensive security strategy and an integrated approach that includes a plan to track rumor mongers.