UAE cracks down on internet dissent United Arab Emirates nationals face jail for mocking the country's rulers and government bodies online, deepening the cross-Gulf crackdown on the use of the internet to spread political dissent. As UAE officials proclaimed their country's election to the UN human rights council this week, the official news agency reported late last night that imprisonment awaited anyone using "any information technology medium to deride or damage the reputation or stature of the state or any of its institutions." The penalties are part of a tightening regional squeeze on electronic activism as autocratic monarchies grapple with the spillover of reformist ideals from uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world. "Part of the reason we have seen a flourishing of critical thought in the Gulf is that people have had the space to do it on blogs, chat sites and Twitter," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and north Africa director of Human Rights Watch, the campaign group. Now, instead of giving their societies the chance to grow and develop, [governments] are clamping down on it. The Emirati rules expand longstanding prohibitions on attacking the country's rulers in the print or broadcast media into the electronic realm. The new regulations - part of a wide-ranging series of amendments to existing cybercrime laws - promise jail for internet users who call for unlicensed protests or publish "information, news, caricatures or any other kind of pictures" that threaten state security and interests, or public order. Forbidden targets range from the president and other top officials, to the national flag and other symbols of the 41-year-old state. The tougher law comes as other members of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council seek to curb dissent. Online debate has exploded across the region in defiance of Gulf societies" highly controlled traditions, with pro-government figures also taking to cyberspace to counter activists and citizens expressing discontent. In Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and the Gulf's largest country, the authorities have been alarmed by the way citizens have turned to social media to vent anger and demand official accountability. When a gas truck crashed into a bridge in Riyadh this month, killing and wounding dozens, Saudi Twitter users debunked the initial official line that there were no casualties by posting pictures of the injured and forcing the government to acknowledge the victims. Mohamed Fahd al-Qahtani, a Saudi economics professor who is on trial for rights activism, said the authorities wanted to use electronic publishing laws to criminalise him. "They told me "we do not have a problem when you defend human rights but do not post on YouTube or on Twitter," " he said. It scares the regime that like-minded people could group together under a hashtag and expose corruption or raise awareness about certain issues. In Bahrain, where members of the country's Shia Muslim majority are leading a 21-month-old revolt against the Sunni monarchy, the activist Nabeel Rajab was jailed for three years in August after he organised protests through social network sites. Oman, which saw street protests last year, has issued its own cybercrime law and has sentenced dozens of online activists and bloggers on charges of defamation and undermining state security. Kuwait, historically one of the more politically open Gulf countries, detained and later released a member of the extended ruling family in July after he accused senior government officials of corruption on Twitter. But strong online political comment is not a one-way stream in the Gulf. Dhahi Khalfan al-Tamim, Dubai's outspoken police chief, often opines on social media , most recently taunting Islamist members of parliament in Kuwait. After the UAE's announcement of its tougher cybercrime law, one Qatari tweeted sardonically: "So Dhahi Khalfan can now shut up forever?"