Because the powers that be over there are planning to block anything that defies the "social and cultural values" of the Emirates.

"It is imperitive that when making use of the world wide web we respect the moral, social and cultural values of the United Arab Emirates," said a spokesman for Du Telecom.

Du Telecom admitted that the plan to block so-called harmful websites could see some completely harmless internet sources "inadvertantly blocked".

Users in Dubai fear that sites such as Facebook could be caught up in the ban.