A 28-year-old Muslim from Galle has been detained by Sri Lanka’s security forces after allegedly posting “hate speech” against the military on Facebook last week.
According to a press release from the Sri Lankan police, the man shared a post on Facebook condemning the army and aiming to “incite violence”.
He was detained by Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department, which has been actively monitoring social media posts across the island for years.
When the case was taken up at the Galle Magistrate’s Court, the CID objected to granting the man bail and he has since ben remanded until the 08th of August 2022.
In Sri Lanka, Facebook is one of many social media platforms being actively monitored by the armed forces.
Earlier this year, social media activist, Anuruddha Bandara, was arrested for running a Facebook page called “Gota Go Home”.
Tamil journalist Kokulathasan, locally known as Kokul, was detained in November 2020 under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for allegedly posting photographs of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on his Facebook page. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Sri Lanka's authorities to immediately drop the "clearly spurious charges" against the Tamil journalist, who spent over 470 days in detention.