A Dubai Police senior official has said that every move on social media was being watched by e-crime teams as authorities counter a rise in “social media misuse”.

Colonel Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, director-general of the Smart Service Department made the comments during the 4th GCC Government Social Media Summit 2015 at Sofitel Dubai Downtown yesterday.

Among the offences recorded by Dubai Police are offensive emojis, insults and cyber extortion and the force has referred social media users to prosecutors for posting offensive material, he said.

“We have laws against users misusing social media and we can reach any person in the world,” Colonel Al Razooqi said, according to a report in 7Days.

“People know they shouldn’t play games with us,” he added.

When asked by a local media journalists whether social media users in Dubai were being watched, he responded: “Everywhere.”

Al Razooqi was also reported as saying: “You cannot use it [the middle finger] in normal life.

“You cannot use your bad gestures to a person in front of you, so [online] it is the same way.

“Social media is created to communicate with people, not to misuse in all these different ways.

“We gather all sorts of data from social media and together… we see if people are happy about Dubai, how safe they feel in Dubai.”

He was also quoted as saying that countering false rumours circulated online was a growing trend police are dealing with, and that officers were monitoring users’ sentiments, to determine how safe people felt.

The UAE has laws on what can be posted online, with jail terms and fines among the penalties for misuse.

Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are being watched for offences such as nudity, blackmail and insults.