Bahrain threatens to target critical social media users

Interior minister says government will draft new legislation to fight accounts spreading 'malicious rumours'.

Social media websites have been important for mobilisation since protests erupted in 2011 [Ahmed al-Fardan/EPA]

Bahrain threatened to hunt down social media users who are sowing "chaos" as the Gulf nation continues to target human rights proponents.

In a statement published on Sunday by the official Bahrain News Agency, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa said his country is considering new legislation to "deal with unprecedented chaos by disruptive social media accounts".

"We won't be far from tracking them down and taking legal action against them even if we need to draft new legislation to tackle the latest developments in such crimes with their negative effects on members of society and the national fabric," Khalifa said.

Police will investigate any "such accounts [that] spread malicious rumours that went against social harmony and civil peace", he added.
Social media websites have been an important avenue for the mobilisation of protests on the island kingdom since 2011, with Twitter a particularly popular platform. The government has jailed dozens of activists and opposition figures.
Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab, a leading figure in the protests, has been behind bars since 2015 for tweets critical of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. Riyadh is Manama's top ally in the region.