Internet censorship in United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates (AE) · · Atom
12
Censorship Score
Level
lowRisk Tier
T2HighTrend
− stableGlobal Rank
#8Incidents
123Overview
UAE restricts VoIP services and filters content based on local regulations.
Evidence provenance
10 records from 2 sources- OONI8 (80%)Active web/messaging probes
- CensoredPlanet2 (20%)Satellite (DNS) + Hyperquack (HTTP/S)
Every record carries a permalink back to its upstream measurement. Click a source label to drill into the raw data for United Arab Emirates.
7-Day Risk Forecast
Predictive AIMachine learning prediction of censorship risk based on historical patterns and political events. Calibrated 2026-05-20 via isotonic refit on 810 live outcomes. See drivers + similar past events →
Loading forecast...
Multi-horizon shutdown forecast — United Arab Emirates
monotonic okNext 1 day
23.5%
Next 7 days
65.2%
Next 30 days
95.2%
Honest scope: this is a current-regime risk signal, not a shutdown-onset predictor. It reliably flags countries already in a sustained blocking regime; on the days a new shutdown actually begins its skill is at/below chance (transition-row AUC ~0.33). Why →
ML Intelligence
Atlas models · 2026-05-21Composite signals from Voidly Atlas's ML model suite — censorship intensity, contagion follow-risk, expected shutdown duration and behavioral peers. Model changelog →
Expected shutdown duration
~5days
If a critical shutdown occurs · IQR ±2d
Try-first circumvention tool
Generic commercial VPN bootstrap · commercial-vpn-aggregate · 42% probe success (mostly-blocked)
Recent Incidents
Confirmed: censorship detected in AEVerified
2d ago100% anomaly · 6 measurements
Confirmed: censorship detected in AEVerified
3d ago100% anomaly · 4 measurements
Censorship detected in AE
3d ago1% anomaly · 1 measurements
Confirmed: censorship detected in AEVerified
4d ago100% anomaly · 3 measurements
Confirmed: censorship detected in AEVerified
5d ago100% anomaly · 3 measurements
ISPs in United Arab Emirates
Known blocked services
VoIP appsSome content categories
Recommendations
- Use Voidly VPN
- Enable encrypted DNS
- Use secure messaging
Data
Measurements438,116
Blocked count59,534
Block rate13.6%
Last updated2026-08-22
API endpoint
/data/country/AEProtocol breakdown
429K
Web
5K
Telegram
5K
WhatsApp
Frequently asked questions about censorship in United Arab Emirates
Q01Is the internet censored in United Arab Emirates?
+
Voidly classifies United Arab Emirates as low (censorship score 12/100, risk tier 2: High). UAE restricts VoIP services and filters content based on local regulations.
Q02What websites are blocked in United Arab Emirates?
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Recent measurements show blocking or interference for: VoIP apps, Some content categories. The block-rate across all measured domains is 13.6% over 438,116 samples. Live per-domain status: https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain={domain}&country=AE.
Q03How does United Arab Emirates's censorship compare globally?
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United Arab Emirates ranks #8 on the Voidly Global Censorship Index. The current trend is stable — no significant change in block rates.
Q04What blocking methods are used in United Arab Emirates?
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Voidly's pipeline detects DNS poisoning, TCP-RESET, blockpage injection, TLS-RESET / SNI-based blocking, and ASN-level outages. The exact method per domain is in each evidence permalink (https://api.voidly.ai/data/incidents?country=AE). Methodology: https://voidly.ai/methodology.
Q05How fresh is the data for United Arab Emirates?
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Voidly probes United Arab Emirates every 5 minutes from 37+ global probe nodes. Upstream OONI, IODA, and CensoredPlanet feeds refresh every 6 hours. The country snapshot was last regenerated 2026-08-22.
Q06How can I check if a specific website is blocked in United Arab Emirates?
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Three options. (1) REST: GET https://api.voidly.ai/v1/accessibility/check?domain=twitter.com&country=AE. (2) MCP: npx @voidly/mcp-server, then call check_domain_blocked with domain="twitter.com" country="AE". (3) CLI: npx @voidly/cli check twitter.com AE. All three return current status, blocking method, and evidence permalinks.
Q07Can I use a VPN to bypass censorship in United Arab Emirates?
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Use Voidly VPN Enable encrypted DNS Use secure messaging The full per-country recommendation list is on this page below.
Q08How do I cite Voidly's data on United Arab Emirates in a paper or article?
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Use the BibTeX or RIS export at https://voidly.ai/cite/AE (also linked from the Citation section below). Permanent incident IDs (e.g., AE-2026-NNNN) are issued for every confirmed event. License: CC BY 4.0 — credit Voidly Research and link back.
Cite this data
Voidly Research. (2026). United Arab Emirates Censorship Profile. https://voidly.ai/ae
License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution.