Be careful of what you post on your social media in Qatar

This is a cautionary tale for everyone who takes to social media to vent out their frustrations. Irresponsible posts, even if deleted soon after posting, can have repercussions, as this recent case in Dubai suggests.

A welder, who is accused of insulting Islam on social media, has been sentenced to a year in jail, ordered to pay Dh500,000 as fine and subsequently deported, according to a report in Khaleej Times.

The Court of First Instance was told the 31-year-old posted the messages on Facebook in which he disrespected Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Even though he deleted all posts and his account itself later, copies of the messages were obtained, translated and used as evidence against him.

Public prosecution records also showed the defendant tried to flee UAE shortly after posting the messages.

This is similar to another case reported in the UAE where a teacher was fined AED500,000 for using hateful language against her uncle on WhatsApp.

According to Lovin Dubai, she was also charged with insulting a historic Muslim scholar, Yazid bin Muawiya, who lived 1,400 years ago, in what is believed to be the first sentence handed down under new hate crime laws.

The laws regarding posting on social media is quite strict in Qatar as well. While it is a crime to share pictures of accidents on social media, there was also an incident of an expatriate being jailed for sharing pictures of a woman online.

Are you sure you know everything about safely and responsibly sharing things on social media? Here are some tips we gathered a while back.