WASHINGTON: Facebook acknowledged on Monday (Jan 22) that the explosion of social media poses a potential threat to democracy, pledging to tackle the problem head-on and turn its powerful platform into a force for "good."
This is a news report regarding the world wide criticism on the worlds ‘largest’ Social media network in relation to the misinformation happened during the US elections 2016. This is mainly a accusation directed to Russia as it is reported that 146M Facebook users are reached through the platform and misinformed starting from January 2015 till now. Facebook is not the only social media platform that has been ‘troubled’ by this event. YouTube and Twitter too claim that they too have a part regarding this in their platforms. This misleading information that reached across the world affected the mind set of people forcing their judgments in the US election 2016. It is evident that people do not yet understand the true intentions of social media and how they work.
As it is crucial worldwide, we, as Sri Lankans experienced this fact of ‘misinformation’ through social media very recently as the Anti-Muslim riots broke out in the district of Kandy. Sri Lankan government declared a state of emergency and they had to put ban on Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram as the situation tensed with the ‘aid’ of these Social media sites.
The Government has ordered the Internet facilitators to block the popular social media sites as a measure taken to stop spreading violence all across the island. The reason behind this is that during the time of curfew, which the Government declared in order to control the situation, the majority Sinhala Buddhist extremists used the social media as a news platform organize violence against the Muslims around the Kandy city. In order to trigger the situation and to ‘recruit’ more people to this destruction, they spread false information using the Social media networks. This measure taken by the Government actually worked as the riots subdued days after implementing the ban. Misinforming the crowds were done by both the Sinhala and the Muslim extremists to get more people on their ‘sides’ but the ban immediately affected in controlling the situation.
As for the reasons why this misinformation happened and was effective regarding the recent incidents happened in Sri Lanka, I’ve got two theories. One; People ‘abuse’ Social media for their personnel benefit, which should be controlled immediately. Two; The Government monitored the Sri Lankan media during this riots and that made people loose trust in the state media apparatus’s, some people relied much on news on Social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber.
This is a news report regarding the world wide criticism on the worlds ‘largest’ Social media network in relation to the misinformation happened during the US elections 2016. This is mainly a accusation directed to Russia as it is reported that 146M Facebook users are reached through the platform and misinformed starting from January 2015 till now. Facebook is not the only social media platform that has been ‘troubled’ by this event. YouTube and Twitter too claim that they too have a part regarding this in their platforms. This misleading information that reached across the world affected the mind set of people forcing their judgments in the US election 2016. It is evident that people do not yet understand the true intentions of social media and how they work.
As it is crucial worldwide, we, as Sri Lankans experienced this fact of ‘misinformation’ through social media very recently as the Anti-Muslim riots broke out in the district of Kandy. Sri Lankan government declared a state of emergency and they had to put ban on Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram as the situation tensed with the ‘aid’ of these Social media sites.
The Government has ordered the Internet facilitators to block the popular social media sites as a measure taken to stop spreading violence all across the island. The reason behind this is that during the time of curfew, which the Government declared in order to control the situation, the majority Sinhala Buddhist extremists used the social media as a news platform organize violence against the Muslims around the Kandy city. In order to trigger the situation and to ‘recruit’ more people to this destruction, they spread false information using the Social media networks. This measure taken by the Government actually worked as the riots subdued days after implementing the ban. Misinforming the crowds were done by both the Sinhala and the Muslim extremists to get more people on their ‘sides’ but the ban immediately affected in controlling the situation.
As for the reasons why this misinformation happened and was effective regarding the recent incidents happened in Sri Lanka, I’ve got two theories. One; People ‘abuse’ Social media for their personnel benefit, which should be controlled immediately. Two; The Government monitored the Sri Lankan media during this riots and that made people loose trust in the state media apparatus’s, some people relied much on news on Social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber.



















