Yousif Khalifa al-Yousif, a prominent political science professor at United Arab Emirates University, issued an “open letter” on Aug. 23 criticizing the hereditary leadership system of the authoritarian country. This letter is in seeming violation of the UAE's cybercrime law, which was updated in 2012.

Yousif posted his Arabic-language article titled “Problems of Citizenship Under the Hereditary System” on the online site Twitmail, a method several activists have used across the Gulf to bypass traditional forms of publishing. Yousif wrote that the current system of government — in which unelected sheikhs pass down their ruling power through the generations — creates trouble for the country.

“The majority of the UAE have suffered from various power struggles since its formation and until the present day,” Yousif writes.

The article appears to violate the country’s cybercrime law, drastically revised in 2012 without any debate. Among many social media restrictions, the law makes it illegal to use electronic means to “oppose the basic principles which constitute the foundations of the ruling system of the state.”