Sri Lanka has been facing very dark days recently with the Easter Bombing which left more than 290 people dead and a whole lot more injured. It is easier to give details regarding the death toll but each individual life holds extreme value to those who hold them dear. The attack was claimed by ISIS and has followed several extreme investigations by Sri Lankan authorities in coordination with Indian authorities to raid extremist shelters and to bring those at fault to justice.
The bombing followed several bans like the hijab ban and then the social media ban to prevent any sort of spreading of fake news. he country’s communications regulator said in a statement Tuesday that it had lifted a nationwide ban on social media imposed after deadly bombings on Easter Sunday killed over 200 people.
The government had said the temporary ban was necessary to prevent “false news” reports from circulating online. Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat were all affected.Social media firms have struggled to stop the spread of misinformation and propaganda following terror attacks. Facebook recently came under scrutiny after the New Zealand shootings were streamed live on the platform.
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But shutting down access to the sites raised questions over censorship in Sri Lanka and the government’s ability to prevent the spread of misinformation. Many Sri Lankans were able to circumvent the restrictions by using VPNs.
This wasn’t the first time Sri Lanka had restricted access to social media.
The government temporarily blocked Facebook and other social platforms last year, saying they were being used to incite violence.
Social media has become extremely toxic when it comes to data sharing and has led to the formation of extremist organisations based on false information and the lightning quick spread of information has fuelled the fire that is the rising hatred in this world and unfortunately, companies have been unable to sort this problem out.
