Chairman of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Deshapriya reiterated that the Election Commission had no intention of blocking social media platforms, as it was through them that the EC received the most information and pictorial evidence whenever election laws were flouted.
The EC Chairman made these remarks when he delivered the ‘Thusitha Samarasekera Memorial Lecture’ on ‘’New trends adversely impacting on free and fair nature of elections’’ at the Lakshman Kadiragamar Center.
The lecture was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in remembrance of it’s former Director, Monitoring and Review, Ms Thusitha Samarasekera who met with an untimely death on 21st September 2014.
Even as the Chairman of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka was discussing with communication experts and representatives from social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube on ways and means of minimising the spread of hate speech, fake news, misinformation and misinterpretation during the forthcoming Presidential poll on November 16, organisers of the Presidential aspirants were known to be gathering social media activists to carry out their campaigns.
Social media activists who had gathered in Matara last Sunday in response to an invitation placed on face book were told that all they had to do was share the posts, facts and figures which they would be sent on their social media platforms and groups. It was doubted that most of these activists would take time to recheck if what they had received and were about to share was true or fake or if they were misleading. Once shared, the damage would be done and may have a bearing on the final outcome of the poll “We would rather carryout a door to door campaign and educate the voters and Social media activists rather than block them” the EC Chairman said.