Sixty-one percent of social media users in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have more than two accounts with the same website said a study by Performix Middle East and North Africa.

The software solutions provider conducted a study among 2,042 users aged between 15 and 64, who had at least one account on social websites.

Osama Atraji, an expert in human behavior, told Arab News the reasons for having more than one account on social networks differ from one person to the next. “We have to take into account the user’s age, attitude, and preferences. Most are afraid to face society, afraid of being rejected because of their views; or they might fear getting into trouble at work or with their families,” he said.

“We can’t be certain about the intentions of multiple account owners. There are many ambiguous accounts, or under pseudonyms, because they want to express views and preferences, which will be difficult to express otherwise,” he added.

Studies stressed these accounts reflect the neglected and negative aspects of human beings if they are used to attack other people, spread false rumors in society, and publish immoral material.

“Using multiple accounts, or fake accounts under pseudonyms, is not new to us. They have always existed, even before the Internet. Many poets and writers wrote under borrowed names for many reasons. This practice was then transferred to the Internet. People register in chat rooms or forums, and social websites under

pseudonyms,” said a blogger who remained

anonymous.

“Knowing the reality of multiple personal accounts, or the type of these accounts helps us to deal with them. A fake account is a person (or sometimes a group of people), who uses false names to hide his or her true identity, for fear of being attacked by people who contradict their views,” he added.

According to another study on social networks, Saudi Arabia ranked first using social websites in the Middle East. This study included Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Saudi Arabia contributes 30 percent to the spreading Arabic content on social networks. It had 3 million Twitter users in 2012. This is a sizable increase when compared to 2011, when the number of Twitter users didn’t exceed 320,000. Six million users visit social websites at least once a day. And 23 percent of Saudi citizens have a Facebook account

The study said 60 percent of social website users surf the Internet on daily basis. Most Internet users surf the web for research and entertainment purposes. Fifty percent of their posts are related to jokes and cartoons; 49 percent use their accounts to publish their personal data. Half of those who took part in the study publish religious content, while minors use the Internet to publish videos and photographs.