Experts welcome plan for unified Arab social media strategy

AMMAN — Communication and cyber experts have welcomed a unified Arab strategy that Jordan is working on to regulate social media to protect users from harmful and illegal content.

Minister of Government Communications Faisal Shboul recently said that Jordan submitted a paper to the Standing Committee for Arab Media, outlining the strategy which also includes digital broadcasting and digital taxation.

Shboul, during a recent meeting with journalists and editors-in-chief representing a number of local media outlets, also said that social media companies in Jordan acquired JD81 million in 2022 from advertisements.

The strategy involves a guiding draft law that aims to help organise Arab countries’ relationship with social media, which applies to social media platforms with a number of users equal to or exceeding 500,000, Shboul said.

Omar Maharmeh, a board member of the Jordan Press Association, said the strategy is good news, but not at the cost of freedom of expression.

“Most of the media content that is published on social media is published free of charge, so there must be an Arab legislation” that protects media outlets. 

The strategy entails that the government imposes taxes on international companies owning social media platforms, which can be used as “compensation” for local media outlets to make up for their losses due to digital advertisements, according to Maharmeh.

Cyber expert Ayah Kilani said a strategy like this is very timely, especially as social media is no longer limited to a certain age group or specific industry.

“We must make sure that the content does not cause any problems for young people and children, and ignite violence or inappropriate speech. It’s important to prevent hate speech,” she added.