20 March 2018 12:30 am
The government during the ethnically-motivated attacks in the Kandy District early this month clamped a temporary ban on social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp with a view to curb or stem the further spread of hate speech and disinformation. It was also said the government was mulling whether to obtain Facebook Inc. assistance to filter hate mongering posts by Facebook users in the future. Needless to say social media has become a fool’s paradise filled with hate, malice, lies, idiocy and all other vile thoughts and it was not clear as to how much the government was successful in curbing the spread of these ideas at least during the ban, in the light of current advancement in the technological field.
The immediate reason for the attacks on the Muslim shops and religious places in Ampara town, according to reports was a lump of flour in food served to a Sinhalese man at an eatery managed by a Muslim. The mayhem in Digana, Teldeniya, Katugastota and many parts of the Kandy district meanwhile was triggered by an incident where a Sinhalese lorry driver was assaulted by four Muslims, resulting in the death of the former. However, the attempts to justify the attacks, amid being widely condemned with the allegation of import of Arab culture and disproportionate population growth, indicates that all ingredients for an ethnic “war” had been smouldering within society, long before the lump of flour came onto the plate or the lorry driver was attacked.
Hate is not and cannot be in the minds of only one community, as it automatically invites reciprocity. It is being instilled in our minds by “our” community from our birth, as ours is a society that perceives diversity as something to hate. But most of the time in our life, humanity keeps that hate suppressed. However, since 2012 when the Halal controversy was brought to the fore by groups with vested interests, the newly introduced social media took over the task of spreading hate and disinformation in a big way. When the lump of flour was found in the Ampara eatery, social media had already created a situation where many people tended or wanted to believe that it was nothing but “wanda pethi”.
In a way, the government is attempting to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. On the other hand, as we mentioned above, curbing social media is a difficult task in a technologically developed or savvy era. It is not only social media platforms, but also thousands of ordinary websites and blogs that are being used to spread hate in various languages. On top of all these, there is no definition to the term “hate” and a comment may be patriotic or nationalistic to one while being hateful to another. Hence, it is not clear how the government is going to filter hate from these media websites that appear in various languages.
Against this backdrop, religious leaders have a major role to play in curbing hate because more often than not, hate is spread in the name of religion and law alone cannot find solutions to this kind of problem. How can hate have a place in Buddhism that preaches “Maithri” or in Islam that preaches compassion or in Christianity and Hinduism that preach love? How can one protect his or her religion violating the very basic tenet of that religion? It is the duty of the religious leaders to sow these thoughts in the minds of their followers.