RIYADH: Impersonating prominent officials and personalities on the social networking site Facebook is a criminal act prohibited by Shariah and is punishable under the Kingdom's cyber laws, said Dr. Isa Al-Ghaith, Adviser to the Minister of Justice. He said it was not easy to uncover such cases and appealed to people to report any such incidents to the authorities. The Ministry of Interior has recently issued an official statement denying claims that Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister has an account on Facebook or a site on the Internet. Al-Ghaith added that he has personally had such an experience when he had pages blocked to him on the site because someone had impersonated him. He said that Facebook has responded to these impersonators and not to genuine complaints. Impersonators can be punished under the Shariah law, he added. Al-Ghaith said that there are cyber-crime laws in the country that deal with anyone impersonating a prominent figure like Prince Naif. He urged the authorities concerned, including the Telecommunications and Information Technology Commission to get companies such as Facebook and Twitter to appoint representatives in the Kingdom. He said the commission should put pressure on these companies to censor and filter their websites from sensational and fake material as it did with the company that manufactures Blackberry mobile phones. Dr. Talal Bakri, Chairman of the Family and Youth Committee at the Shoura Council, warned that those who establish fake accounts of reputed public figures can be punished under the Kingdom's laws.
