Managing Religious and Communal Tensions in Digital Age: Choices & Dilemmas Remarks at Consultation on Reporting on Religious & Communal Tensions in Sri Lanka, organised by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka.

1. Managing Religious and
Communal Tensions in Digital Age:
Choices & Dilemmas
Remarks by Nalaka Gunawardene
nalakagunawardene.com
7 September 2015
Consultation on Reporting on Religious &
Communal Tensions in Sri Lanka

2. Why am I, an avowed Rationalist,
talking on religious freedom?
My tweet on 13 April 2013

4. THIS is why I’m talking here!
CAUTION: I have more questions than answers!

5. Challenge: Balancing
Two Key Human Freedoms

6. Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)

7. Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)

8. Our Dilemma/Challenge…

9. In Lankan context…
 We need MORE Freedom of Expression (FOE)
 Yes, some among us ABUSE it (online, offline)
 But that’s NOT an argument to curb FOE
 How to stay an open society without too much
INTOLERANCE?
 Pathways to responsible FOE:
 Ethical guidelines?
 Multicultural education?
 Community mobilisation?
 Empowering silent majority?

10. Where do we draw the line?
Cartoon by Roger Dahl

11. Is this our response?
Should it be?

12. Online content
production by
established media
 Newspapers
 TV channels
 Radio channels
Entirely web-
based news or
opinion services
(run by entities)
 Asian Mirror
 Lanka E-News
 Colombo
Telegraph
 Groundviews
Pvt individuals
on social media
 Bloggers
 Facebookers
 Tweeps
 Instagrammers
 Others
3 main types of public-access
web content

13. Online content
production by
established media
Already covered by
existing media laws
and regulations.
+ Press Complaints
Comm can investigate
print media lapses
(but rulings not legally
binding)
Entirely web-
based news or
opinion services
(run by entities)
Some like
Groundviews have
own ethics code.
Not easy to bring
all players into one
framework
Pvt individuals
on social media
Very large
numbers, globally
scattered: where
do we even begin
to engage them?
How to hold each type responsible
for content produced/shared

14. Facebook:
‘Wild West’ of Cyberspace?
Sri Lanka snapshot: End 2014
 3.3 m Internet accounts (82% on mobile devices)
 Estimated 5m persons using the web in LKA
 2.5 m+ Facebook accounts (assume 15-20%
fake/double)  at least 2 m Lankans on FB

15. Facebook:
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
It’s a platform with 1.44 billion users, or a fifth
of Humanity: we get every kind of person there!

16. Cartoon by Ben Garrison

17. Liking Violence: Hate speech on
Facebook in Sri Lanka (Nov 2014)
http://www.cpalanka.org/liking-violence-a-study-of-hate-
speech-on-facebook-in-sri-lanka/
CPA Study showed growing online
hatred in LK towards various groups:
• Muslims
• Women in general
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender
LGBT communities
• Christians
• Human rights defenders
• Investigative journalists
• Dissenting voices in general

18. Liking Violence: Hate speech on
Facebook in Sri Lanka (Nov 2014)
http://www.cpalanka.org/liking-violence-a-study-of-hate-
speech-on-facebook-in-sri-lanka/
“Ultimately, there is no
technical solution to what is
a socio-political problem.”
- Shilpa Samaratunge &
Sanjana Hattotuwa, co-authors
of CPA study

19. Sampling of Facebook
negativity found on LKA pages
Images sourced during 2015 from public-access
Facebook pages apparently operated by:
 Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)
 Sinhala Ravaya
 Sinhala Buddhist
 A few others
Shared WITHOUT endorsement
For research purposes only…

20. Example 1
Denouncing new Opp Leader
Uses some
selected Sinhala
newspaper repts
to warn new LKA
Opp Leader R
Sampanthan
would “divide
the country” via
Federal system

21. Example 2
Spreading demographic myths
Claims
Muslims
can/will
become
majority
ethnic
group in
Sri Lanka by
2090

22. Example 3:
Bashing the Catholic Church
Claims a Church
has no right to use
a moonstone,
which this says is
a unique cultural
artefact of the
Sinhalese (Helas)

23. Example 4
Conspiracy on ‘infertility plot’
“Pakistani spices
now in Lankan
market,
designed to
make Sinhalese
infertile, say
health
authorities”

24. Example 5
Conspiracy by “Chritian politicians”
“Don’t vote
for these
anti-
Buddhist
elements
who were
behind Ven
Soma’s
death”

25. Example 6
Racism in 2015 General Election
“Your vote in
Kalutara for
the Lion of
Sinhale, or
these anti-
Sinhalese
pigs?”

26. Example 7
Racism in 2015 General Election
Who will hold
decisive power in
the next
Parliament?
Ethnic minorities?
Or Sinhala
Buddhist forces?

27. Example 8
Vilifying moderate politicians
Attacking JVP
Leader for calling
for “arrest of
robe-wearing
mob who went to
Kuragala”

28. Example 9
Vilifying multicultural politicians
 Says Palitha
Thewarapperuma
(UNP) supported
muslims in
Aluthgama.
 Urges people note
to vote for this
moron

29. Example 10
Fear-mongering online
Claims ISIS
plans to
conquer LKA
by 2020.
Dares ISIS to
“come and
see what
happens”

30. Example 11
Commercial Conspiracy Theory
Claims muslim-
owned Etisalat
telecom co has
given free SIMs
to some SL
Army soldiers,
and now spying
on military thru
these devices

31. Example 12
Vilifying multicultural artiste
Amaradeva vs.
Sunil Perera of
Gypsies.
“Know the
difference
between real and
bogus artistes!”

32. Example 13
Mixing cricket & players’ religion
Free Sri Lanka
Cricket Team from
the grip of Cardinal
Malcolmn Ranjith
and Catholic
Church. Make a
Sinhala Buddhist
the captain again
as in 1996 World
Cup winning team

33. Example 14
Spreading economic falsehoods
Distorts
what
Islamic
banking is
and how
it affects
non-
Muslim
customers
of banks

34. Example 15
Anti-Muslim business
 Sinhalese
should not
patronise
these and
other
Muslim-
owned
businesses

35. Offenders crying foul?
Beware of fake
Facebook
accounts that
spread
falsehoods
- Sinhala Ravaya

36. Bottomlines…
At its most basic, Dealing with hate-
mongering and rumour-spreading online
has to do with 3 key questions:
 How OPEN & TOLERANT do we wish to
be as a modern society?
 How much are NEW MEDIA being
colonised by our OLD PREJUDICES?
 What can we DO to counter – BUT
without state censorship or regulation?

37. From my remarks when launching
CPA study on Hate Speech on FB
 We cannot grow or innovate
much online when we are have
BROADBAND and NARROW-
minds!
 For tapping the web’s full
potential, we need TRUST &
COLLABORATION among users
 Extending our divisions to cyber
space is NOT the way forward!

38. Regulatory Dilemma…
 Should Internet & mobile services be shut
down in a whole country or part to contain
spread of communal tensions?
 Last resort action? If so, who decides?
 What economic & social costs of such temp.
shutdowns?
 Serious implications for Internet freedom
 TOUGH: Balancing law & order while
maintaining free information flows

39. What’s going on in India?
Govt getting fond of ‘Kill Switch’?

40. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-
states/article7607186.ece
2 Sep 2015

41. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/politics/patel-quota-stir-continues-gujarat-
government-asks-telecos-to-temporarily-shut-down-internet-services-
1051614.html
27 Aug 2015

42. http://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/valley-
stays-shut-internet-blocked/
11 Aug 2013

43. Instead of ‘Kill Switch’
What other options to counter?
 Cyber Literacy
 Cyber Civility
 Community vigilance
All medium to long term responses.
No short-cuts to open & pluralistic societies!

44.  Aluthgama: 15-17 June 2014
 Mainstream Media Blackout
 Social media & mobiles partly filled vacuum

45. Full text: http://collidecolumn.wordpress.com

46. Concerned netizens used social media to call
for racial harmony, peace and unity

47. Very widely shared
citizen meme

48. One People
Many Religions
One Sri Lanka
Citizens created Memes like this calling for
non-violence before & after Aluthgama riots

49. Emerging:
More spaces for civilised debate
One of many public-access Facebook pages calling for
Open discussion of current topics

50. Emerging:
Online satirising of extremism
(Mock?) meme:
BBS calling for a
mass protest
against Sanga for
kissing his wife in
public at farewell
ceremony
[20,000 = total
votes for BBS at
GenElecSL 2015]

51. Emerging (but unverified)
Websites appealing for decency
http://goo.gl/t
D3MDm

52. On-going:
LKA cartoonists’ commentary
Cartoon by
Awantha
Artigala

53. On-going:
LKA cartoonists’ commentary
Cartoon by
Gihan de
Chickera

54. More challenges:
Managing clash of cultures

56. What’s to be Done?
Questions to discuss…
 SOURCES: Where is misinformation and hate-speech
mostly found online?
 SPREAD: What is the extent of hate speech in social
media, especially Facebook, in Sri Lanka?
 BALANCE: How do fully web-based news and/or
opinion media balance FOE and racial/religious
harmony?
 What for hope for urging SELF-RESTRAINT during
particularly tensed situations, e.g. Aluthgama?
 How does mainstream media’s conduct influence
social media coverage of incidents (and vice versa)?
 Is ‘wisdom of the crowd’ strong enough to MITIGATE
extreme viewpoints online? If not, what to do?

57. What Next?
http://nalakagunawardene.com
Twitter: @NalakaG