Hate speech to be added to penal code

The government is in the process of including hate speech as an offence in the penal code thereby making it a criminal offence to address the disturbances that have occurred through the spread of hate speech through social media thus creating ethnic conflicts across the country.

Addressing the SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies) CEO connect with Sri Lanka Unites recently, the Non Cabinet Minister of Mass Media and State Minister of Defence, Ruwan Wijewardene said that spread of misinformation and hate speech through social media and traditional media, led to many riots and disturbances recently, following the Easter Sunday attack.

It also influenced the ethnic conflicts which took place not long time back in the country. Social media was effectively used by both Muslim and Sinhalese extremists to arouse violence thus creating various disturbances across the country.

The definition of hate speech according to The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitute incitement, discrimination, hostility or violence.

The government took various steps to shut down social media sites in order to avoid the spread of hate speech and misinformation. “Even though it was not a popular action, still the government of Sri Lanka had to do it for the benefit of the citizens,” he said.

However he said that this is not the appropriate solution as social media cannot be blocked every time a disturbance occurs in the country. And also with the use of VPN (Virtual Private Network), blocking social media sites is not effective.

“It is evident that inciting hatred and violence through social media has threatened the national security,” the Minister said. He said that there should be effective regulation of social media. An independent body free of government interference needs to be established as a watch dog and a regulator given with sufficient statutory power to penalize offenders and to help people who are mistakenly taken wrong and their characters tarnished.

“I believe that using of Artificial Intelligence to fight against hate speech will be an effective measure and I am equally grateful for SLASSCOM for coming forward with this initiative,” he said.

It may take years for the wounds to heal but as a nation help should be given specially for the Muslim community to eradicate extremists form their community.