Ministry of Interior to crack down online abuses

The Ministry of Interior said Sunday it is monitoring the electronic accounts of persons who breach the public ethics or slander the civil servants, including the personnel of the security apparatus.

The civil servants and the security apparatus are entitled by law to protection against any slanderous remarks they might face while doing their duty, said a statement from the Ministry’s General Directorate of Security Relations and Media.

The Department of Electronic and Cyber Crime, an affiliate of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigations, is collecting evidence of the offending accounts as a prelude to taking a legal action against their owners. The statement advised the social media users to abide by the law and public ethics to avoid unnecessary legal accountability.

Recent surveillance of the social media showed that some accounts used libel and morally inappropriate language to defame civil servants.