Best VPNs for UAE

However, the country is heavily repressive regarding public internet access, even though those sites which are mostly affected by censorship are still available. Regardless of that, Freedom House has been rating the country as not free in its annual Freedom on the Net Report since 2013. Furthermore, local authorities have classified using a VPN as illegal, making its use very risky – but not impossible.

Using a UAE IP

First of all, services like the much acclaimed Netflix have their own local version, with some of the top series and movies even having Arab subtitles, but they are obviously not as vast as the U.S. versions. Aside from that, the main sources of news are the more than 70 free-to-air TV channels, some of them being quite exclusive and/or being available in specific territories only. The latter is the main reason why using an UAE IP address can be useful, because if you can find a good online stream you don’t have to worry about regional blocks anymore. Still, unlike the practice of many other Arab countries, UAE television content is not blocked outside its borders.

UAE online privacy laws

As we mentioned before, the United Arab Emirates has its own share of blocked online content, accompanied by strict privacy laws that severely punish those who violate them. Internet regulations are issued by the TRA (Telecom Regulatory Authority) which are applied by the two ISPs of the country (Etisalat and du) in the form of website blocks. Over the past few years even some TV channels were censored too, two in particular belonging to Pakistani satellite TV services. Furthermore, the big majority of VoIP service providers, including WhatsApp, Snapchat and Skype, are also completely blocked in the region. This is why the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders classifies UAE as one of the enemies of the free internet, while Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net Report labels the country as not free. In fact, FH gave worse and worse scores to the UAE, making the country reach newer lows on the list of the free countries in the world every year.

Internet censorship in UAE

But if the main online platforms of freedom are not blocked then what is blocked? According to the reports of NGOs, websites offering adult content, gambling sites, politically sensitive material are not allowed to be accessed inside the UAE’s borders. In addition to that, certain parts of Wikipedia and all Israeli domains are also blocked, plus anything that goes against the moral values of the country. Furthermore, media publications must be licensed and shall follow official guidelines, leading to the unfortunate practice of self-censorship amongst journalists.

To pour even more salt to the wound of complete web surfing freedom, in 2015 the Dubai police stated that tempering with the internet using VPNs within the country is a crime, therefore it is illegal. However, when the use of VPNs should be considered a crime against the regime highly depends on your own use of the software. If you use a VPN for privacy purposes or to simply enhance your internet speed, then you’re fine. But if you use it for unblocking any outlawed content or you perform other illegal acts (like torrenting), you must face severe consequences. It is unknown whether the country uses a great firewall like China does to unveil VPN users looking for an unlimited internet access, but there are known cases where certain blocked websites, which were available with VPNs, became unavailable again, even with a VPN connection.

Streaming services in UAE

However, if we take into consideration the previous paragraph, using a VPN to access these streaming sites should be acceptable, since you are not breaking “the law” and you are not accessing illegal content.

Free UAE VPN trials

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