Surbaya: Muslim clerics are seeking regulation for online behaviour in Indonesia, saying the exploding popularity of social networking sites like Facebook could encourage illicit sex.

A spokesman says a meeting of 700 imams in the world’s most populous Muslim nation on Thursday was considering forbidding followers from online flirting they believe encourages extramarital affairs.

Nabil Haroen of the Lirboyo Islamic boarding school hosting the event said an edict is needed “because this online relationship could lead to lust, which is forbidden in Islam.”

Facebook has said that Indonesia, a nation of 235 million, was the fastest-growing country on Facebook in Asia in 2008, with a 645 percent increase to 831,000 users.

These new investments from Intel Capital are in Jordanian internet companies Jeeran, one of the leading user generated content portals in the Arab world, and ShooFeeTV, a free online Arabic television guide. Both companies are also IV Holdings portfolio companies.

This comes among Intel Capital’s ongoing push in the region, supporting local entrepreneurship in the Middle East and funding companies in the internet and technology sectors through its $50 million Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey Fund, which is aimed to assist the companies in pursuing regional growth and development plans in addition to extending their product offerings.

Under the umbrella of this fund, Intel continues to increase its investment in four key areas: local entrepreneurship, education, digital accessibility and specialized technical competencies, to help promote technology skills, knowledge transfer and jobs creation.

As has become custom for most such investments in the Arab world, the size of these investments has not been disclosed.

Global software giant Microsoft is working on translation technology that would make the Arabic language more accessible to Internet users, according to Qatar’s daily The Peninsula.

“We’re deeply investing into that,” the newspaper quotes Anoop Gupta, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group, as saying. He said Microsoft was developing translation technology that would translate web pages in English into Arabic. It is also modifying search engines to make the language of the Arab world more accessible globally.

Gupta also emphasised the need to ensure that people in the Arab world become great digital citizens, so that they become a part of the digital revolution. This would ensure more Arabic content on the internet, he added.

The Microsoft official applauded the developments in Qatar, where many citizens are already blogging on the Internet everyday and exploring new websites. He said students in Qatar were also improving accessibility to Arabic language by doing their projects on the internet in Arabic, the daily said.

Mohammad Mammoudi, Country Manager of Microsoft Qatar, told the Qatari newspaper that the company had already introduced a Language Interface Programme which helps in making available tools in Arabic.

Besides Qatar, Microsoft has also established an Innovation Center in Egypt which specialises in identifying ways of improving Internet search in Arabic and encouraging better participation of the Arabic community in the internet phenomenon, according to The Peninsula.