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Sri Lanka: Social media hate speech during the 2015 elections - A study by CPA

3 March 2016

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[. . .] The 2015 Parliamentary Election witnessed social media as a key tool for political campaigning and election related activity. Facebook emerged the most used social media platform. Unsurprisingly, the relatively unshackled freedom of expression found in social media also invited unchecked expressions of hateful and defamatory material targeting candidates.

What effect, if any, did such alarming expressions of hate have on the outcome of the election? What effect, if any can it have on our society desperately in need of disentangling itself from the bonds of racist, extremist, and sexist divisions?

CPA’s new report examines 11 Facebook groups appropriated to promote hate speech thinly veiled as political speech, targeting political parties and candidates based on their ethnicity, religion or gender. [. . .]

SEE FULL REPORT HERE

Voting in Hate: A study of hate speech on Facebook surrounding Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary Election of 2015
by Sanjana Hattotuwa & Roshini Wickremesinhe (Centre for Policy Alternatives
March 2016)