The Government has decided to introduce new laws as proposed by the Law Commission to regulate social media. This follows many instances where certain persons had tried to incite religious tensions in the country, Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
Dr. Rajapakshe said the Government is considering implementing the law based on provisions previously presented by the Law Commission to regulate social media. It was intended that these would regulate the behaviour of social networking sites, he said.
The move came following reports of people posting defamatory remarks about the Ven. Mahanayaka Theras and other religious leaders on social media such as Youtube and Facebook.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that these acts must stop, said Dr. Rajapakshe.
He said, “We have to do this. We cannot allow the unethical behaviour of certain ambitious people abusing religious leaders and others through social media sites to ruin the lives of others and the social fabric of the country.
We cannot give them the freedom to sling mud at people.”
The Minister said, “They are abusing religious leaders through social media, not just because they want to make heroes out of themselves, or to gratify their ambitions to become famous.
They criticise all religious leaders and religions to wreak havoc on the country. Most of them engage in these activities with sinister political and religious agendas.”
“We will bring in new laws not necessarily to control social media. We want to prevent the disruption they plan to cause on national peace and harmony,” he added.