Someone Has Defamed or Insulted Me — Online or in Person

Posts, stories, reviews and comments: capture the full screen, not a crop, so that the account name or handle, the date and time, the URL and the surrounding thread are visible. Screen-record stories, videos and anything that expires. Capture replies, shares and reactions that show who saw it and how far it spread. Keep the original files and the device, and do not annotate or edit them.

Messages and groups: capture the whole conversation around the message, who sent it, when, and who was in the group, rather than one line out of context. Export the chat if the app allows. Things said in person or in writing: write down, the same day if you can, exactly what was said, by whom, where, when and in front of whom, ask witnesses whether they would confirm it, and keep any letter or note.

Whether any extra step, such as expert capture, would strengthen your evidence is a question for your lawyer; no official e-evidence service is named here. Capture first, because the three-month complaint window (Step 4) runs from when you know what was said and who said it, and content can vanish within hours.

An angry reply that insults back can make you the subject of a counter-complaint under the same laws, because the online offence covers anyone who insults another person using a network, app or information system. If that has already happened, see our pages on being accused of an online insult and on a police complaint filed against you. Do not repost the content to 'expose' it or share it in other groups asking people to take sides.

Do not threaten the poster: online threats and extortion are separate offences (Decree-Law 34/2021, Art. 42). And do not 'name and shame': publishing someone's private information or images with intent to harm them can be an offence even if it is true (Art. 44). Any approach for a retraction or an apology is best made through a lawyer, in writing, after the evidence is secured.

LEXNOVA is not a law firm and does not file complaints or send removal requests. LEXNOVA Legal Connect can help you describe what was said, where, and what you want to happen, and introduce potentially suitable lawyers who handle defamation complaints and compensation claims; the lawyer decides the strategy.

Defamation: online, it is an offence to use an information network, information technology equipment or an information system to attribute to someone a quality that would expose them to punishment or to contempt by others (Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021, Art. 43). Offline, defamation is dealt with under the federal Penal Code (Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2021), whose detailed provisions a lawyer applies to your facts. Whether the statement must reach a wide audience, whether you must be named or only identifiable, and whether a private message is enough are not settled by the texts reviewed for this page; a lawyer assesses them first.

Insult: the same article makes it an offence to insult someone using a network, app or information system; offline insult is a Penal Code matter. Online, insulting a public official or a person entrusted with a public service, during or because of their work, is an aggravating circumstance. Whether truth is a defence, and when, was not confirmed from the texts reviewed, so do not assume either way.

Related offences may fit better. Doctoring a photo, recording or scene to defame or insult someone is a specific limb of Art. 44, which also covers publishing private information or images with intent to harm, even if true. Threats to share private images are covered on our page about that situation. When a business is the target: whether a company itself can be the victim of criminal defamation, as opposed to its owners or staff, was not confirmed, so a lawyer identifies the right complainant or claimant before anything is filed.

Under the Criminal Procedures Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2022), insult and slander of people can be prosecuted only on the victim's complaint, and the complaint is not admitted after three months from the date the victim became aware of the crime and of who committed it, unless the law provides otherwise (Art. 11). It is made to the Public Prosecution or a judicial police officer (Art. 12), in practice the police of the emirate, at a station or online, or the prosecution. Whether the three months apply identically to the online offence has not been confirmed, so treat them as an outer limit and take advice quickly. Our guide on filing a criminal complaint explains the general process.

Once filed, the police and the Public Prosecution run the case; you provide evidence but do not decide whether a charge is brought. You do control one thing: in a complaint-only offence you can waive the complaint at any time before final judgment, which ends the criminal case, and a waiver after final judgment stops the penalty being carried out (Art. 17). On conviction under the cybercrime law, the court can order the devices used to be forfeited and the data deleted (Art. 56), and may order the site or account closed or blocked, and the offender's use of networks restricted (Art. 59). The cybercrime law has no deportation article; for a foreign offender, the general Penal Code rule applies.

If the account is anonymous: a complaint can still be filed, and investigators have routes to seek account information from platforms that private individuals do not; how far that goes depends on the platform and the facts. If the person is outside the UAE: the cybercrime law can apply to crimes committed abroad that harm a UAE national or resident (Art. 69), but enforcing it against someone who stays abroad is a separate, practical question, and Interpol's list of offences for which Red Notices may not be issued includes defamation. Do not assume the person can be brought to the UAE.

UAE civil law treats harm to reputation as compensable. Under the Civil Transactions Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, in force since 1 June 2026), every act causing harm obliges its author to compensate (Art. 246), and liability includes moral harm: an infringement of another's freedom, honour, reputation, social standing or financial status is moral harm (Art. 254(1)). The factors that matter are the statement, its false or insulting character, and the harm it caused, from lost work to damage to standing.

Inside the criminal case: a person who has suffered direct personal harm from a crime can bring a civil claim against the accused during evidence-gathering, the investigation or the criminal trial, up to the close of pleadings but not for the first time before the Court of Appeal, once the court fees are paid (Criminal Procedures Law, Art. 23). As a separate claim: you can sue in the courts of the emirate, or in the DIFC or ADGM Courts only where they have jurisdiction; our guide on which court has jurisdiction explains the choice.

A harmful-act claim is not admitted after three years from when the injured party became aware of the damage and of the person responsible (Civil Transactions Law, Art. 258(1)). That civil clock is separate from, and much longer than, the three-month complaint window, so do not let the longer one make you miss the shorter one. Whether a criminal conviction must come before a damages claim was not confirmed; your lawyer advises on the sequence.

Most platforms have their own tools for reporting defamatory, abusive or impersonating content, and a report can lead to removal or restriction. This runs alongside the legal process, not instead of it. Capture everything first (Step 1): content removed before you preserve it can take your evidence with it.

A lawyer can write to the poster asking for removal and a retraction, which sometimes resolves matters quickly and sometimes provokes a reaction; that is a judgement to make with advice. A court can also, on conviction, order data deleted and a site or account closed or blocked (Step 4).

Copies can survive in search results, caches, other people's screenshots and forwarded messages. Clearing them is a practical exercise, through platform reports, search-engine request tools and requests to people who reshared, rather than a legal right this page can promise. Keep a list of where copies appear and when you found them.

There are four realistic combinations: a criminal complaint only; a compensation claim only; a complaint and then compensation, inside the criminal case or separately; or a negotiated retraction and removal, with legal action held in reserve. The three-month window means the first decision cannot wait long, even if you settle later, since a waiver can end a complaint-only case at any stage before final judgment.

The deciding factors are what you want (removal, accountability, money or all three), who and where the poster is, the strength of your record, how far the content spread, and the publicity a case can itself create. A business owner will also weigh customer relationships and the customer's side of the story.

Bring to a first consultation the captures and original files, the device, the date you first saw the content and learned who was behind it, witnesses, any correspondence with the poster, and evidence of harm, such as a lost contract or a warning from an employer. A lawyer who handles both cybercrime complaints and civil compensation claims is usually the best fit, because the two tracks interact.