The giowth of online hate speech in Sii

Lanka uoes not guaiantee anothei pogiom.

It uoes howevei pose a iange of othei
challenges to goveinment anu goveinance
aiounu social, ethnic, cultuial anu ieligious
co-existence, uiveisity anu, ultimately, to
the veiy coie of uebates aiounu how we see
anu oiganise ouiselves post-wai.
Liking
violence
A stuuy of hate speech on
Facebook in Sii Lanka
"#$%&' "'(')'*+,-. ',/ "',0',' 1'**2*+3'
4.,*). 52) 62%$78 9%*.),'*$:.; < ".&*.(=.) >?@A
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
1

Contents

Intiouuction ............................................................................................................................................................................................... S
Executive Summaiy ................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
0veiview ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Nethouology ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Scope of Stuuy ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 12
Significance of stuuy ........................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Bate speech veisus fiee speech: Some peitinent fiamewoiks ........................................................................................ 17
Befinitions .................................................................................................................................................................................... 2u
Bate speech & Bangeious Speech ...................................................................................................................................... 21
Foims of online hate ................................................................................................................................................................ 21
Taigets anu piouuceis of hate speech ........................................................................................................................................ 24
Bemogiaphic of piouuceis ......................................................................................................................................................... 26
Nain taigets of hate speech ........................................................................................................................................................ 28
Seconuaiy taigets ........................................................................................................................................................................... S2
Five uefining vaiiables ....................................................................................................................................................................... S9
The speakei .................................................................................................................................................................................. S9
The auuience................................................................................................................................................................................ 4u
Content of the speech .............................................................................................................................................................. 4S
Socio-histoiical context .......................................................................................................................................................... 4S
Noue of tiansmission .............................................................................................................................................................. 46
Common chaiacteiistics of hate speech useu to gainei suppoit .................................................................................... 49
Euucation ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
Benialism ...................................................................................................................................................................................... Su
Builuing uioup Soliuaiity ...................................................................................................................................................... S1
Beio Naiiative ............................................................................................................................................................................ SS
Nationalism .................................................................................................................................................................................. S4
Scaie Tactics ................................................................................................................................................................................ SS
0theiing ......................................................................................................................................................................................... S6
Auuiessing online hate speech in othei countiies anu iegions ...................................................................................... S8
Recommenuations ............................................................................................................................................................................... 61
Refeiences ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 6S
Annexuie .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 67
Facebook Page 1 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 67
Facebook Page 2 .............................................................................................................................................................................. 84
Facebook Page S ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1u2
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
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Facebook Page 4 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 111
Facebook Page S ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12u
Facebook Page 6 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1S1
Facebook Page 7 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 14u
Facebook Page 8 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1S1
Facebook Page 9 ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1S7
Facebook Page 1u ......................................................................................................................................................................... 161
Facebook Page 11 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 162
Facebook Page 12 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 168
Facebook Page 1S ......................................................................................................................................................................... 17u
Facebook Page 14 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 182
Facebook Page 1S ......................................................................................................................................................................... 184
Facebook Page 1S ......................................................................................................................................................................... 192
Facebook Page 17 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 194
Facebook Page 18 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 198
Facebook Page 19 ......................................................................................................................................................................... 2uu
Facebook Page 2u ......................................................................................................................................................................... 2u2


Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
S

Intiouuction

Hate speech on the Inteinet is a global concein anu with no kill-switch solution. Bepenuing on the location
online, language anu meuia useu, context anu sometimes even the natuie of the actois conceineu, uealing
with hate speech is a vexeu challenge fiom paient to policymakei. This hasnt stopped politicians, with little
to no unueistanuing of unueilying technical challenges oi iepiessive goveinments, who often seek a
monopoly aiounu the uissemination of uefamatoiy piopaganua seeking to contiol hate speech.
Paiochialism anu expeuiency uiive most effoits aiounu hate speech ielateu policy iesponses anu
legislation. In Sii Lanka, online social meuia anu web baseu platfoims, accesseu incieasingly ovei
smaitphones anu tablets, pioviue an impoitant, necessaiy vent foi ciitical uissent, in a context wheie
mainstieam meuia uoes not anu cannot affoiu the space foi questioning oi content that holus the
goveinment accountable foi heinous ciimes anu outiageous coiiuption. The giowth of content cieation
anu consumption online, wiuei anu ueepei than any othei meuia in the countiy anu at an acceleiateu pace,
has also iesulteu in low iisk, low cost anu high impact online spaces to spieau hate, haim anu huit against
specific communities, inuiviuuals oi iueas. Conspiiacy theoiists, fiinge lunatics anu tiolls have since the
fiist uays of the Inteinet inhabiteu online spaces anu engageu with uevoteu followeis, oi sought to ueny
anu ueciy those who question them. The giowth of hate speech can be seen as a natuial piogiession
outwaiu fiom these pockets of ielative isolation, anu is also peggeu to the economics of bioaubanu inteinet
access anu the uouble uigit giowth of smaitphones an unueilying, coast to coast netwoik infiastiuctuie
capable of iich meuia content piouuction anu inteiactive, ieal time engagement. This infiastiuctuie has
eiaseu tiauitional geogiaphies hate anu haim against a paiticulai ieligion, iuentity gioup oi community
in one pait of the woilu oi countiy, can foi example within seconus, tianslate into violent emulation oi
stiiuent opposition in anothei pait, communicateu via online social meuia anu meuiateu thiough platfoims
like Twittei, Facebook anu also thiough instant messaging apps foi mobiles like iNessage anu WhatsApp,
in auuition to the oluei SNS technology.
A cential challenge aiounu auuiessing hate speech is that it is technically impossible given the volume,
vaiiety anu velocity of content piouuction on the Inteinet touay
1
to iobustly assess anu cuitail, in as close
to ieal time as possible, inflammatoiy, uangeious oi hateful content just in English, leave asiue othei
languages like Sinhala oi Tamil. 0nce content is piouuceu foi the web anu oiiginally foi a single platfoim,
given usei inteiactions anu iesponses, it often ieplicates anu mutates into othei content ovei uozens of
othei websites anu platfoims, making it impossible to complete eiase a iecoiu of its existence even if the
oiiginal was taken uown, ueleteu oi ieuacteu. This makes it extiemely haiu to auuiess the haim aiising out
of hate speech, since theie is so much of it aiounu in uigital foim ovei so many meuia.
Anothei challenge is in uefining hate speech. 0veibioau legislation iisks the law being useu to cuitail anu
stifle uissent. Loosely uefineu laws allow peipetiatois of hate speech to get away by iefeiencing the
fieeuom of expiession. Policymakeis who have to iesponu to angiy communities anu inuiviuuals who aie

1
http:www.ibmbiguatahub.cominfogiaphicfoui-vs-big-uata
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
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the taigets of hate speech, if they aie impoitant constituencies, often iesponu with piomises to auuiess a
pioblem they in fact cannot. Inteinet Seivice Pioviueis anu laige coipoiations like uoogle, Facebook anu
Twittei have uevelopeu iobust guiuelines aiounu the content they will allow on theii platfoims, but these
seem to only woik best aiounu output that is in English. Foi example, this biief stuuy is testimony to the
sheei volume of hate fieely uisseminateu in Sinhalese on Facebook, even though the company has cleai
guiuelines aiounu such content which incluues the banning anu blocking of useis.
Reflecting the lack of any univeisal uefinition of hate speech content acceptable to oi posteu lawfully in
one countiy oi iegion can be ueemeu hateful anu unlawful in otheis, even on the same platfoim oi site -
the teim is, unsuipiisingly, vaiiously defined across leading web companies. Googles YouTube defines it
as
2
,
content that promotes hatred against membeis of a piotecteu gioup. Foi instance, iacist oi sexist
content may be consiueieu hate speech. Sometimes theie is a fine line between what is anu what
is not consiueieu hate speech. Foi instance, it is geneially okay to ciiticise a nation, but not okay
to make insulting geneialisations about people of a paiticulai nationality.
Facebook uefines hate speech as
S
,
Content that attacks people baseu on theii actual oi peiceiveu iace, ethnicity, national oiigin,
ieligion, sex, genuei, sexual oiientation, uisability oi uisease is not alloweu. We uo, howevei, allow
cleai attempts at humoui oi satiie that might otheiwise be consiueieu a possible thieat oi attack.
This incluues content that many people may finu to be in bau taste (ex: jokes, stanu-up comeuy,
populai song lyiics, etc.).
Addressing that it hadnt done enough in the past to address hate speech
4
, Twitteis cuiient iules anu
policies note that
S
,
0seis may not make uiiect, specific thieats of violence against otheis, incluuing thieats against a
peison oi gioup on the basis of iace, ethnicity, national oiigin, ieligion, sexual oiientation, genuei,
genuei iuentity, age, oi uisability.
Auu to these vaiying uefinitions is that the challenge of uefining hate speech in contiauistinction to foi
example content that is just miluly offensive, uistasteful, satiiical oi aceibic is ueeply iooteu in context
anu expiession. What coulu be a geneially accepteu tuin of phiase useu in colloquial speech, when
tianslateu into English anu out of context, can be seen as hate speech in line with the guiuelines noteu
above. Similaily, hate speech can be easily uisguiseu by iesoiting to non-English anu non-textual
expiession oi a combination of both. This stuuy has a numbei of examples wheie inflammatoiy anu
uefamatoiy content against a specific community finus expiession anu openly iesiues on Facebook because

2
https:www.youtube.comtcommunity_guiuelines
S
https:www.facebook.comhelp1SS4u21S99u449u
4
https:blog.twittei.comen-gb2u1Soui-commitment
S
https:suppoit.twittei.comaiticles2u169997
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
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it is in Sinhala, a language that cleaily lies outsiue existing language competencies of Facebooks automated
anu human cuiateu monitoiing fiamewoiks. This biings us to a key challenge aiounu hate speech it
always iequiies context to unueistanu anu auuiess, anu incieasingly, the inteimeuiaiies in both suppoiting
anu cuitailing the spieau of it aie coipoiate entities, not goveinments. Nachine level anu algoiithmic
fiamewoiks to iuentify anu block hateful anu haimful content often fail, simply because they flag too many
false positives (content eiioneously flaggeu as hate speech) oi allow so much of hate speech to pass thiough
(in, as noteu eailiei, languages othei than English) that theii coie puipose ienueieu iiielevant. This puts
the buiuen of auuiessing this content on useis themselves, who thiough iepoiting mechanisms bakeu into
all the majoi only social meuia platfoims, can choose to iepoit hate speech with ielevant context. 0nly as
effective as the numbeis who iepoit hate speech, these iepoiting mechanisms also take some time to kick-
in fiom the time of submission to the actual ueletion oi blocking of the oiiginal content, page, account oi
usei. At a time of heighteneu violence, this time lag is unhelpful. Theie is also no guaiantee the (coipoiate)
ownei of an app, seivice, platfoim oi website agiees with the iepoiting of hateful content. Stuuies show,
foi example, significant vaiiance in uealing with hate speech even within Facebook
6
.
This stuuy aims to focus these challenges aiounu the significant giowth of hate speech in post-wai Sii
Lanka, piimaiily uiiectly against the Nuslim community anu Islam. The iise of Islamophobia in Sii Lanka
is well uocumenteu
7
anu shows no signs of abating. Stuuies on this scoie aie often anchoieu to the
statements by extiemist gioups in public iallies, anu physical acts of violence anu intimiuation. Equally
iemaikable though less stuuieu is the giowth of hate speech in online social meuia. As I noteu in 2u1S aftei
the stuuy of just aiounu foui of the most active extiemist gioups on Facebook
8
,
Even the most offensive anti-Nuslim sentiments anu statements have a giowing auuience anu
following in web baseu social meuia
That such content has a gieatei chance of going viial, anu influencing ieal woilu action, when publisheu
in online foia as opposeu to mainstieam anu tiauitional meuia
Content is laigely visual in natuie, appealing to a uemogiaphic as young as 18 (who aie still in school)
Anti-Nuslim hate speech is geneially, qualitatively moie vicious anu venomous than anti-LTTE
sentiments even at the height of wai
Numbeis of those joining these gioups is on the iise, anu the goveinment is eithei unawaie oi unable
to auuiess this thiough countei-naiiatives anu content in suppoit of libeial values, toleiance anu
ieligious cohesion.
The focus of this stuuy is to expanu on these points. Sauly, the content foi the ieseaich is giowing in
abunuance. When juxtaposeu with the incieasing violence against sexual, ethnic anu ieligious minoiities
anu the open celebiation of hate speech by gioups like the BBS with total impunity, content online iisks
fanning even gieatei violence in the futuie. Even if to uate theie is little eviuence of content online leauing
to actual physical violence, what is paiticulaily uistuibing given the tens of thousanus who aie actively

6
http:ohpi.oig.auif-you-cant-iecognize-hate-speech-the-sunlight-cant-penetiate
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http:newint.oigblog2u1Su41Sislamaphobia-in-sii-lanka
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http:sanjanah.woiupiess.com2u1Su2u1anti-muslim-hate-online-in-post-wai-sii-lanka
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
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piouucing anu engaging with hate speech is the iauicalisation of youth, as young as 18, to an alaiming
uegiee. Though uiscussions anu content aie iespectively conuucteu anu piouuceu in public foia ovei
platfoims like Facebook, the scale anu uegiee of this iauicalisation iemains iionically hiuuen to politicians,
policymakeis anu even most paients because of a uigital meuia liteiacy gap. As I waineu in 2u1S
9
,
uiven that the extiemists aie web savvy, anu escape the usual checks on the spieau of iacist
content by viitue of publishing mateiial in Sinhala, it is to be expecteu that unless seiious,
meaningful anu uigent measuies aie taken by goveinment, hate will oveicome moie moueiate
voices online, anu iisk spilling ovei to ieal woilu violence on the lines of Black }uly 198S, against
Nuslims.
0bviously, the giowth of hate speech online in Sii Lanka uoes not guaiantee anothei pogiom. It uoes
howevei pose a iange of othei challenges to goveinment anu goveinance aiounu social, ethnic, cultuial
anu ieligious co-existence, uiveisity anu, ultimately, to the veiy coie of uebates aiounu how we see anu
oiganise ouiselves post-wai. What this stuuy lacks, by uesign, is a list of solutions to countei the giowth of
online hate speech. Theie is simply no panacea, no easy fix oi solution in the shoit teim that will effectively
cuitail the emeigence of hate speech online in the futuie. Inueeu, a goveinment that piotects instigatois of
hate is not one that can uiive piogiessive policies aiounu auuiessing a giowing tienu this same hate
expiesseu online. Politicians who aie uigitally illiteiate aie equally ill-placeu to biing about legislation that
auuiesses hate speech even though it may appeai to be expeuient to uo so in light of incieasing violence.
What this stuuy aims to pioviue is eviuence aiounu what iemains an unuei-appieciateu uiivei of conflict
anu violence post-wai. To acknowleuge the scale anu uepth of the pioblem is a step beyonu an ignoiance
that it even exists. Noving foiwaiu iequiies all levels of goveinment, piivate coipoiations outsiue of Sii
Lanka that host social meuia content, civil society within the countiy incluuing the legal community,
conscientious inuiviuuals anu institutions in the uiaspoia anu local ISPs, out of a uuty of caie foi theii
customei base woiking in conceit to auuiess this explosion of hate speech online. Though it is uncleai when
anu if a conceiteu, collective appioach oi a wiuei stuuy aiounu hate speech in Sii Lankan online foia will
be unueitaken, this iepoit pioviues a staiting point foi infoimeu uiscussions aiounu how uigently this
uistuibing phenomenon neeus to be stuuieu anu iemeuial measuies, to the extent possible, taken.
Ny sinceie thanks anu appieciation to Shilpa Samaiatunge, the leau authoi anu ieseaichei of this stuuy.
Bespite being piofounuly uistiesseu by what she encounteieu, Shilpas shaip eye anu intelligence was
simply invaluable in matching existing ieseaich on online hate with content founu on Sii Lankan websites
anu social meuia. Without hei, this iepoit woulu simply not be.

Sanjana Battotuwa
sanjanahcpalanka.oig

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http:sanjanah.woiupiess.com2u1Su2u1anti-muslim-hate-online-in-post-wai-sii-lanka
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
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Executive Summaiy

A consiueiable amount of social meuia hate speech in Sii Lanka occuis on Facebook. The ability to like,
shaie anu comment on posts allows foiums foi suppoiteis to engage, to plan iallies anu othei events anu
keep all similai posts in one place. It also allows aumins of pages to iemove anu ban uissenting voices,
allowing a gieatei uegiee of contiol than platfoims such as Twittei. This phenomenon is not only ielevant
to Sri Lanka. According to the Umati Project in Kenya only 3% of total hate speech comments collected by
0mati oiiginateu on Twitter, while 90% were found on Facebook (iHub Research & 0shahiui 2u1S: S).
Facebook also allows easiei uata collection on past events in compaiison to Twittei. Twittei iequiies
manual aichiving in ieal time oi sophisticateu technical access to anu analysis of its uata stieams, beyonu
the capacity anu scope of this stuuy (even though Twittei often acts in conceit with content on Facebook
to both flame violence anu also uispel iumouis)
1u
. The uegiee to which hate speech exists on social meuia
is often unuetecteu by platform, domain or app owners (e.g. Facebooks own hate speech monitoring
mechanisms
11
) uue to the expiession being pieuominantly in Sinhala (even the language useu to annotate
photos, illustiate viueos oi uiaw memes is pieuominantly if not exclusively Sinhala). This is why content
in English that iuns completely counter to Facebooks policies around hate speech
12
finus fiee expiession
in Sinhala, only subject to sciutiny anu compliance when iepoiteu by conscientious useis. In highlighting
some of these pages this analysis hopes to biing attention to the neeu foi monitoiing, fuithei ieseaich anu
action against online hate speech in Sii Lanka, iecognising at the same time that this is not a challenge
limiteu to the countiy.
0ltimately, theie is no technical solution to what is a socio-political problem. Sri Lankas culture of impunity
anu the bieakuown in the iule of law is what affoius the space foi fascist gioups like the !"#$ !&'& ()*&,
(+*,&'& -&.&/& anu -&.&*& !&'&0&/& to say what they uo anu get away with it. In }uly this yeai, the Centie
foi Policy Alteinatives (CPA) compileu a shoit biief to cieate awaieness on the Constitutional anu legal
fiamewoik anu available legal iemeuies iegaiuing ieligious fieeuom anu ielateu issues, in light of the
violence in Aluthgama
1S
. What is eviuent is that even without new legislation looking at online uomains anu
content, theie aie a iange of legal iemeuies anu fiamewoiks to holu peipetiatois of hate speech
accountable foi theii violence, whethei veibal oi physical. The issue is not the non-existence of ielevant
legal fiamewoiks, but theii non-application oi selective application.
If the tienu aiounu hate speech online is to be tiuly stemmeu, meuia liteiacy piogiammes aimeu at
stuuents, teacheis, paients, lectuieis, goveinment officials, civil society, meuia consumeis anu citizens, in
Sinhala anu Tamil, ovei mobile fiienuly, fieely accessible anu engaging ways is iequiieu ovei the long-teim.
Episouic violence such as Aluthgama anu Beiuwela this yeai will test the ability of civil society to piouuce
anu piomote countei-messaging to stiategically anu in a timely mannei auuiess the coie submissions of

1u
http:www.fiistpost.comwoilusocial-meuia-bieaks-sl-meuias-shameful-silence-on-aluthgama-iiots-1S7279S.html
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https:www.facebook.comnotesfacebook-safetycontioveisial-haimful-anu-hateful-speech-on-facebookS744Su6SS911uS4
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https:www.facebook.comcommunitystanuaius
1S
http:www.cpalanka.oigconstitutional-anu-legal-fiamewoik-goveining-ieligious-fieeuom-anu-ielatu-issues
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
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hate speech online. This will also iequiie civic meuia initiatives anu citizen jouinalists to tie up with
piincipleu piofessional jouinalists woiking in mainstieam meuia to fact check, uebunk, engage anu uispel
iumouis ovei social meuia in close to ieal time vital skills that aie aiueu by constantly impioving uigital
meuia liteiacy (see foi example iesouices fiom Amnesty Inteinational on social meuia content veiification
the Centie foi Policy Alteinatives has tianslateu into Sinhala anu Tamil, with a view to stemming iumouis
anu misinfoimation online by those who aie on social meuia platfoims
14
).
Though theie is no easy oi piesciibeu solution, piogiessive thinking, pioactive content piouuction,
stiategic inteiventions anu caieful monitoiing can iuentity anu neutialise the wiuei haim online hate
speech can, if uncheckeu anu alloweu to giow, sustain anu stiengthen.
Civility, tolerance and respect for diversity are as hard to find online as they are in Sri Lankas mainstream
paity political fiamewoik even post-war. It would be a tragedy if the countrys only remaining spaces to
iueate, ciitical ieflect anu iobustly uebate which aie online - aie taken ovei by hate-mongeis, to the extent
they aie alloweu to uo so in the ieal woilu. So many in Sii Lanka, in vaiious ways, iesist violence, whethei
veibal oi physical. The challenge is to stiengthen theii voices anu effoits in light of what is a giowing tienu
of hate speech piouuction online, which though by no means easy, is also not an insuimountable one.


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http:giounuviews.oig2u14u8u8veiifying-usei-geneiateu-content-online-iough-guiues-in-tamil-sinhala-anu-english
Liking violence: A stuuy of hate speech on Facebook in Sii Lanka
Septembei 2u14
2u4

















The Centie foi Policy Alteinatives (CPA) is an inuepenuent, non-paitisan oiganization that focuses
piimaiily on issues of goveinance anu conflict iesolution. Foimeu in 1996 in the fiim belief that the vital
contiibution of civil society to the public policy uebate is in neeu of stiengthening, CPA is committeu to
piogiammes of ieseaich anu auvocacy thiough which public policy is ciitiqueu, alteinatives iuentifieu anu
uisseminateu.

Auuiess : 242 28th Lane, off Flowei Roau, Colombo 7, Sii Lanka
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