As part of the UAE Social Media White Papers’ initiative
T R A
publishes its YouTube White Paper
The Telecommunications Regulatory Au-
thority, TRA, has launched a white paper
on YouTube usage, which comes as part
of ‘The UAE Social Media White Pa-
pers’ collection, aimed at highlighting the
terms and conditions of the most popular
social networks in use in the UAE.
The laws of the UAE prohibit the publica-
tion of content which is contrary to public
morals, the principles of Islam and the
social and moral welfare of the UAE, or
any content that contains irreverence to-
wards Islam and any other heavenly reli-
gions. The content must also respect the
UAE Government, its leadership, politi-
cal institutions and ultimately the UAE’s
cultural heritage and social norms and
customs.
In reference to ‘YouTube’, the white pa-
per highlights the following information
as a priority for all respective subscrib-
ers: “Firstly, users are prohibited from
undertaking predatory behavior, stalk-
ing, threats and harassment of others.
Harassment could include copying a
user’s channel layout, using a similar
username or posing as another person.
Secondly, users must only upload videos
which they have made or which they are
authorized to use. Thirdly, YouTube is
owned by Google.
In using the YouTube service, users
agree to Google’s terms relating to the
collection and sharing of their personal
information.
The TRA initiative was launched during
their first media briefing where they pub-
lished earlier the Facebook and Twitter
white papers.
The social networks that are included in
the UAE Social Media White Papers’ ini-
tiative are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
YouTube, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Gmail, Mi-
crosoft Outlook, Apple Store, Blackberry
and Kik.
YouTube is a video sharing website that
allows billions of people to discover,
watch and share originally created vid-
eos. Registered users can upload an
unlimited number of videos and leave
comments on other videos. Much of the
content is filmed and uploaded by indi-
viduals.
The service also offers professionally
produced content including films, televi-
sion programmes and music videos from
certain YouTube partners. The majorities
of videos are free to view and are sup-
ported by advertising. This paper also
aims at letting users know that the site
may use and redistribute works extract-
ed from the contents produced by users.
9
January
2015
