‘Al Harah website blocked for not cooperating with investigation’

The Public Prosecution department has issued a statement to clarify the facts about the blocking of Al Harah Al Omaniya forum website, based on the need to be transparent while delivering information to the public.

Ali bin Saif al Maamary, director of the anti-cybercrimes department at Public Prosecution, said that the use of information technology (IT) is today available to all categories of society and has become one of the important necessities in the daily lives of people.

He said that some people have, however, misused IT by using it against the public interest and traditions of society, and this has negatively impacted the social, economic and political aspects of life.

Of late, the number of social networks has increased with many focusing on several fields such as culture, politics, economy and others. Some of these websites spread false news and rumours, and some members of these forums have misused them to insult and level fake charges at people that are aimed at defaming their reputations.

Article 61 of the Telecommunications Regulatory Act says that anyone using telecommunication devices to spread false news or harm someone can be punished with up to one year in jail and can be fined  up to RO1,000.

The Public Prosecution statement said that its investigation team had asked the website administrator to identify the culprits. But the website replied that IP-based tracking was not activated on the website and hence they could not identify the culprits.

The website administrator has also refused to provide any information to Public Prosecution about the identity of the culprits. The website was then blocked by a court decision until more information is provided to the investigating team. The Public Prosecution statement reiterated that the disclosure of such information is the legal responsibility of the website administration according to Article 27 of the relevant laws.