සමාජ මාධ්‍ය අවහිරයෙන් ඔබ්බට: නව නීති හා නියාමන අවශ්‍යද? Beyond Social Media block in Sri Lanka

This article, in Sinhala, appeared in Irida Lakbima broadsheet newspaper on Sunday, 18 March 2018 and is based on an interview with myself on Sri Lanka’s Social Media block that lasted from 7 to 15 March 2018.

I discuss Facebook’s Community Standards and the complaints mechanism currently in place, and the difficulties that non-English language content poses for Facebook’s designated monitors looking out for violations of these standards. Hate speech and other objectionable content produced in local languages like Sinhala sometimes pass through FB’s scrutiny. This indicates more needs to be done both by the platform’s administrators, as well as by concerned FB users who spot such content.

But I sound a caution about introducing new Sri Lankan laws to regulate social media, as that can easily stifle citizens’ right to freedom of expression to question, challenge and criticise politicians and officials. Of course, FoE can have reasonable and proportionate limits, and our challenge is to have a public dialogue on what these limits are for online speech and self-expression that social media enables.

Author: Nalaka Gunawardene

A science writer by training, I've worked as a journalist and communication specialist across Asia for 30+ years. During this time, I have variously been a news reporter, feature writer, radio presenter, TV quizmaster, documentary film producer, foreign correspondent and journalist trainer. I continue to juggle some of these roles, while also blogging and tweeting and column writing. View all posts by Nalaka Gunawardene