Police lured the man to a meeting and arrested him after accessing a private WhatsApp group with colleagues
An airline employee was arrested by Dubai police after he shared images with colleagues in a private WhatsApp group of bomb damage caused by the Middle East conflict.
Police accessed the closed WhatsApp group chat, saved the evidence and told the man to come to a meeting before arresting him.
The offending image showed smoke rising above a building after the March 2026 strikes and had only been shared in the private group chat.
He remains in detention on charges including publishing information deemed harmful to state interests, the maximum sentence of which is two years.
Read more: British holidaymaker, 60, arrested in Dubai for ‘filming missiles’
Radha Stirling, chief executive of London-based advocacy group Detained in Dubai, said Dubai police had “explicitly confirmed they are conducting electronic surveillance operations capable of detecting private WhatsApp messages.”
She said people were being tracked, identified, and arrested not for public statements, but for private exchanges between colleagues.”
‘Companies like WhatsApp must answer urgent questions about user privacy.” she added.
Ms Stirling continued: “If private communications can be detected and used as the basis for arrest by overreaching or hypersensitive states, users worldwide need clarity on how their data is being accessed.”
The police report said authorities learned of the material’s existence “‘through electronic monitoring operations”.
A special team from the Electronic and Cybercrime Department was told to find the account holder who shared the video.
The airline worker was tracked down, lured to a meeting and arrested by police.
The case was then escalated to State Security Prosecution. He remains in detention.
The UAE government owns majority holdings in telecom companies Etisalat and Du. This gives security services the power to observe all communications on their networks.
The Arab state has also used the Israeli-developed software Pegasus which allows agents to listen into private calls and read messages, even if they are shared on encrypted apps like WhatsApp,.
The spyware can infect a device even without the user activating a link – such as via a WhatsApp call, even if it isn’t answered.
Once inside, it can access all WhatsApp messages, logos and contacts.
Ms Stirling said other tourists, airline crew and residents have reported being detained for sending, receiving or keeping content even when they did not share it.
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He shared images with colleagues in a private WhatsApp group showing smoke rising above a building after the March 2026 strikes. He was lured to a meeting and arrested, and remains in detention on charges including publishing information deemed harmful to state interests, which carries a maximum sentence of two years.
The police report said authorities learned of the material's existence through electronic monitoring operations, and a special team from the Electronic and Cybercrime Department was told to find the account holder who shared it. Advocacy group Detained in Dubai said police explicitly confirmed they conduct electronic surveillance capable of detecting private WhatsApp messages.
Radha Stirling said people are being tracked, identified and arrested not for public statements but for private exchanges between colleagues. She said companies like WhatsApp must answer urgent questions about user privacy, since other tourists, airline crew and residents have reported being detained for sending, receiving or even just keeping content they did not share.
The UAE government owns majority holdings in telecom companies Etisalat and Du, giving security services the power to observe all communications on their networks. The state has also used the Israeli-developed Pegasus spyware, which can listen to private calls and read messages on encrypted apps like WhatsApp, infecting a device through a WhatsApp call even without the user answering.
