Tuesday, 1st July 2014
Agence France-Presse
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka will clamp down on Internet hate speech following deadly anti-Muslim riots said to have been fuelled by social media sites, the military said Monday.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has asked the law and order ministry to deal with racial and religious hatred being spread using Facebook and Twitter, military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya said.
“There are some Facebook pages against Buddhism, but more pages against Islam,” Wanigasooriya told AFP. “Some try to project every Muslim as a jihadist. It is wrong and it must stop.”
He said Rajapakse, the powerful younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, had asked law enforcement authorities to work out a “practical way” of dealing with online hate speech.
Anti-Muslim riots in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka two weeks ago left at least four people dead and 80 seriously wounded. Hundreds of shops and homes were also destroyed in the tourist resort towns of Alutgama and Beruwala.
Police have arrested eight suspects accused of looting during the riots, along with 55 others who have been linked to the violence.
From : http://www.arabtimesonline.com/Portals/0/PDF_Files/pdf14/jul/01/13.pdf
