8 July 2019 02:46 pm
Popular music artist Iraj Weeraratne's Facebook fan page which was followed by over 1.1 million followers had been suspended last Friday and the singer raised concern whether his anti-government sentiments may have led to the suspension of the page.
He said he couldn’t think of any other reason to suspend his fan page other than his views which were critical of the government.
"I fear I may not be able to get the page back. I was not notified or given a reason by the Facebook on the suspension. Usually this happens only when a request was made by a Government," he said.
He said it appeared that the Sri Lankan officials who work for the Facebook and report incidents, may have reported his anti-government content as hate speech or other form of speech resulting in the suspension.
“These Sri Lankan officials were appointed by the Government and they report back anti-government sentiments as racism or hate speech. I was vocal of the Kuragala issue.
“There was an issue with Minister Sajith Premadasa after I requested to provide electricity to Kuragala. The Minister was criticised by the people when he decided not to give electricity to Kuragala.
“I believe these incidents may have led to the suspension of the page. However, I'm not 100 percent sure if this is a work of the UNP side or the President's Office. I'm looking into it," he said.
Several attempts to contact Minister Premadasa to get a comment were not successful.