According to the Ministry of Interior of Bahrain, “four arrested for misuse of social media.” However, the charges mentioned in the report [1] seem to be very vague – “defaming public figures on social media.” The arrested tweeps, Ali Al-Haiki, Abdullah Al-Hashimi, Ali Mohamed and Salman Abdullah will be held in custody for seven days under investigation.
Although the Bahraini authorities claim that the constitution protects freedom of expression, there have been many cases in which activists are solely detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression on social media such as Twitter. If the four detainees are held solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, they are to be considered as prisoners of conscience.
More updates to be posted later.