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Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx
Gazella did you all make a conscious decision not to use Facebook and Twitter? Or was it more in the line of just not bothering to get an account without really going through the pros and cons?
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Some of us are just simply not interested. Social networking doesn't interest me one bit but also I don't/won't feel comfortable with having an account. And some don't have accounts on Facebook or Twitter because they value their privacy and they feel social media violates that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx
I see that you're in Abu Dhabi, is Facebook and Twitter commonplace amongst the general population there?
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Social media is very popular here. The UAE has the highest number of Twitter users in the Gulf with 2.5M tweets everyday; and Facebook users add up to 3.6M. Social Media is also commonly used here to promote businesses and campaigns. They conducted a survey recently and they found that women in the UAE tweet seven times more than the average Twitter user.
Females (who use social media) here prefer Twitter to Facebook. Facebook is more popular among males.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx
Has the government made its voice known re what it thinks of Facebook and Twitter generally?
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Twitter was partially blocked in the UAE for several hours because of safety reasons (that was I believe a couple of months ago). The government doesn't mind if someone has a Facebook/Twitter account as long as they comply with the rules. The UAE Police are monitoring Twitter and Facebook 24 hours a day. They're keeping a close eye and they're detecting and tracking all topics and materials written and presented. Several UAE citizens have been arrested recently for statements made on Twitter. One was arrested for tweets in which he criticized the country’s security forces, while another was arrested on charges of defamation. These are just a few, several others were arrested and jailed because they attempted to foment national unrest and some were jailed due to criticizing the UAE government.
Now you know why some of us don't want anything to do with social media.
If you're interested:
http://www.stats.ae/UAE-Facebook-Stats
http://www.stats.ae/UAE-Twitter-Stats