UAE Expat Professionals Furious Over Skype Ban

Expats in the UAE are furious at the emirate’s banning of Skype.

Both locals and expat professionals living and working in the UAE are furious at the government’s banning of the popular VOP Skype. Residents are making their views very clear via social media outlets and the Microsoft-owned company is calling the ban a ‘frustrating move’ and doing its best to get reinstated. The move has hit hard on businesses as well as on expat professionals working in the emirates who use the programme to stay in touch with their families and friends in the home country.

According to local media, this isn’t the first time UAE officials have banned the popular service, as bans were first announced in 2017 and again in January last year. VOP calls on Apple FaceTime, Viber and Whatsapp are also banned, meaning expats will now only be able to contact their nearest and dearest by phone. Amidst the expat community’s fury, many are saying it’s against the emirates’ much-vaunted Vision 2021 plan for economic development.

Others are claiming the move was made to give an advantage to a rival domestic service requiring a subscription plan as, during the last two bans, expats were told to use C’Me or Botim. Businesses are as angry as those using Skype to stay in contact with loved ones, as many companies regularly use the service for video-conferencing purposes. According to one IT specialist, the UAE can’t expect companies in the rest of the world to use only UAE-approved video conferencing sites in order to interact with UAE-based businesses.