Sri Lanka govt lifts ban on Facebook after assurance from US social media giant

The government imposed a state of emergency March 6 and blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media sites following anti-Muslim violence in the island's central hills Kandy and Ampara districts.

It restricted the use of social media after police claimed that they were being used to spread hatred against the minority community.

The nationwide restrictions, however, on image and video sharing on messaging apps WhatsApp and Viber were lifted on Wednesday.

President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the telecom regulator to lift the ban following talks between the government, led by his Secretary and head of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Austin Fernando and Facebook officials here.

"My secretary has discussed with officials of Facebook, who have agreed that its platform will not be used for spreading hate speech and inciting violence," the president, who is currently touring Japan, said on Twitter.

According to an official statement, President Sirisena has ordered the country's telecommunications regulator to lift the blockage on access to Facebook. "In the context, where the impact that could be made by social media to expeditiously increase violent actions based on racism and religious extremism has been internationally proven.

"Sri Lanka was able to control the rapid spread of violence by temporarily imposing restriction on social media as an action to ensure the national and public safety of Sri Lanka," the statement said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had said that the government would put in place a mechanism for the social media to prevent the attempts to disturb the livelihoods of people through spreading ethnic-hatred and racism, and damaging the image of an individual through false allegations. The government received flack from the Opposition for not lifting the ban despite improvement in the situation, which alleged that it was a move aimed at gaging the criticism of the government.