President Maithripala Sirisena’s office has demanded Facebook Inc to disclose confidential information pertaining to pages operated by 16 politicians, Colombo Telegraph can reveal.
Out of 16 politicians who are under scrutiny, 10 represent the United National Party (06) while others are from President Sirisena’s own camp – the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Among those who are in the President’s office Facebook watch list are Sirisena’s recently-appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his son, Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa.
Ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickrmesinghe and several politicians who are closely associated with him are among the 10 UNP MPs selected by the President’s Office.
The details President Sirisena’s office has requested from Facebook Inc includes the names of Admins and Editors, their IP addresses and locations, details pertaining to the engagement of these pages, their demographics, and other confidential details that Facebook Inc. does not share with third parties.
Colombo Telegraph learns that Sirisena’s office has requested the details citing “national security concerns.”
We can also confirm that a senior representative from the Department of Government Policy and Public Affairs (South Asia) of Facebook Inc has met President Sirisena and his representatives last week for a meeting.
Sirisena, at the meeting, had insisted that the global tech company should present the requested details within two weeks or the government will resort to “drastic action”.
Facebook representative has agreed to comply with the Sri Lankan government’s request due to fears that if Sri Lanka adopts drastic measures against the social media platform, it will influence bigger markers in the region, such as Singapore, to follow suit.
However, if Facebook complies with the Sri Lankan government’s unethical demands, the company will seriously comprise its commitment to privacy of the users, a top company source said.
Sri Lanka shutdown Facebook Inc platforms and other online messaging platforms, during the outbreak of racial violence in the Kandy district, in March, this year.
Meanwhile, Facebook blocked the admins of the UNP official page from publishing new content, hours before the party held a massive rally in Colombo,against the government. The party had plans to live stream the rally on the Facebook page.
However, due to a strong public backlash and repeated complaints, Facebook restored admin rights of the group, allowing the page to live stream the rally.
The move has raised serious doubts whether Facebook has agreed to collude with the ‘unconstitutional’ rule of President Sirisena that has drawn strong negative reactions even from the United States.
Rohan / November 15, 2018
Yes, SOB, bastard, rascal Shitsena’s ass is burning. The Idiot brought it upon himself, owing to his power greed, and unmercifully sacrificing MR, and his JO. Now, the people’s curse is on all of them. Whatever self respect and support they had has vanished in the thin air.
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Native Vedda / November 15, 2018
Rohan
–
Things are hotting up.
Will/can the security forces unearth more assassination plots against the entire SLFP/SLPP leadership and discovering some arms and ammunition in the North East West South while some sleeper cells surfacing from deep underground bunkers?
–
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old codger / November 16, 2018
Jimsofty has heard that the security forces recovered a coffin from six feet underground, containing a person with a completely empty skull. Investigations are continuing.
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gamini / November 15, 2018
President Maithripala in his letter to the Speaker that bears a different signature, which does not resemble the signature of Mathripala, misconstrues that there is a precedent where RW was made as the Prime Minister who only commanded 41 seats, a minority in the Parliament. This is a total lie. Ranil was made the Prime Minister of the SLFP Maithri faction barring MR’s faction and the UNP . Therefore automatically DM Jayaratne ceased to be the Prime Minister. Thus Ranil commanded the 41 UNP plus the SLFP Maithri faction plus the other parties of the coalition, that had the majority seats in the Parliament. So Maithri should be made to understand that in a Democracy the PM is the person who commands the majority vote in the Parliament and not visa versa.
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Amarasiri / November 15, 2018
All,
Time for entrepreneurs to come up with competition to Facebook.
Freedom to communicate is a fundamental right, irrespective of whether Sirisena’s balls are dissolving or not.
/
Mohamed / November 16, 2018
Amarasiri,
Please do not expect it from Sri Lankans, maybe non-resident Sri Lankans would be able, but not the local gembaas who only know what is taught to them in the books, if something is not in the books they learnt in Uni/institutions, then it is impossible or wrong as per them – Not innovative or creative. Buggers are more interested in counting number of holidays (that is really too many days wasted) in a calendar than checking their achievements. Their capacity ends at the monthly salary because their parents educated them just to achieve that.
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Fathima / November 15, 2018
Tip of the iceberg. I guess FB should respect their own policies and submit these info only on a court’s request. I think a political party or any established organization should not depend on FB for its activities and use their own domains for the purpose (simply you don’t know when and who will block you), while using FB and other social media for advertising and promotional purposes to get advantage of the user base.
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bert / November 17, 2018
Its time for us to request from the House of Representative and senate to investigate facebook. Don’t forget facebook is already in hot water with senate and the house.
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Champa / November 15, 2018
This is unbelievable.
This is the man who boasted that he brought freedom and democracy to Sri Lanka.
Anyways, going by the current happenings, tomorrow is a crucial day for “Gamarala as he is meant to go to heaven on Friday night.” Until such time, there won’t be a PM or a government. That is why all brouhaha in the Parliament. This is very transparent now. ha ha ha.
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Native Vedda / November 15, 2018
Champa
–
Sirisena and co are playing a dangerous game.
When tech wizards are being pissed off by the Silly Sena’s amateurs, …………..
Pallewatta Gamaralalage Kumarasinghe Sirisena was placed as the Group Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom, we should have known this was coming.
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Champa / November 16, 2018
Native Vedda
I don’t think it is him. When you look at him, you could see that he knows nothing about technology same as Maithri. It is someone else who is tech savvy behind this, manipulating Maithri to do these things. What Nimal says may be true.
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shankar / November 16, 2018
champa
you stated that sirisena will be assasinated by the 15th. So how can you blame him for checking on everybody including mahinda.Now what is your date for his death?
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Nimal / November 15, 2018
This move by Gamarala was definitely exercised on the advice of UNEDUCATED GoTa who is strongly standing behind the coup. Gamarala has no clue of sophisticated mechanisms of Face Book.
Watch out for known criminal GoTa and his movements. He is the snake more venomous than MaRa, Namal baby, Basil et el
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Champa / November 15, 2018
Nimal
It will take a long time for MR to realize that a section of MPs in the JO together with Maithri have conspired to tarnish his image and make him unpopular to pave the way for Gotabhaya. (I very clearly said this months ago to a Sinhala Daily when the talks went around.)
And Basil also played a similar role to give Maithri the upper hand by making MR and some JO MPs taking the membership of the SLPP in a mad hurry. Now MR is under obligation to Maithri as retaining or losing his Parliamentary seat and 20-30 others is entirely in Maithri’s hand.
Overall, this is a victory to Maithri.
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Nimal / November 16, 2018
Champa,
Totally agreed on your point.
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shankar / November 17, 2018
champa
ranil and maithri must be laughing their head off and congratulating each other on the phone.second time mahinda taken for a ride by them,first one being hoppers.
Look at this photo that was taken with rosy as the go between.
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LANKA Nitizen / November 15, 2018
[11/15, 19:46] ✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍✍: https:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEyQPSPAXQk
Dan spade???
This is exactly what happened today at the Parliament after the fight,
you can see most of the members from both parties in very friendly chats after the fight.
Just watch how they make a mockery of the people who vote them In, is there no way we can unite for once?
We need a people power Constitution and nothing else.
By God, I swear.
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Champa / November 15, 2018
LANKA Nitizen
Oh, yeah very much later, I mean after 2 hours of thuggery and indecent behaviour in the Well, they have realized that they were on TV!!!!
What happens afterwards is the show.
What happened in the Well is the real!
Now the entire country has witnessed and heard what type of people they have elected to Parliament.
I say, all 225 should be replaced at the next election.
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Buddhist / November 15, 2018
One man, Sirisena, an uneducated Bum whom everyone expected to be a decent person has today ruined the place Sri Lanka had in the world. SL was the first democratic country in Asia, unfortunately for his own greed for power he has ruined the nation. Unfortunately the blame should be equally allocated to the Buddhist Mahanayake Theros as well.
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SJ / November 15, 2018
Facebook has no great reputation for ethical conduct.
The bosses will sell their m***** fora few bucks.
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bryan coorey / November 15, 2018
President Sirisena has acted in undemocratic manner by outsteading
Current PM Ranil W.in unlawful way.
This has created chaos in parliament for power struggle.Mahinda does not
hold any majority in house .thats why
his henchmen obstucting speaker for vote.its very unfortynate being one of the first nation to declare democracy
in Asia..today we are facing biggest threat by thuggery in politics..
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whywhy / November 15, 2018
I opened F B account years back but for some reason I was not interested in
sharing anything on it ! But what’s going on at the moment in the country
can not be suppressed by blocking social media access ! People are being
openly forced to disregard constitutional rights , Supreme court decision ,
and parliamentary traditions and rules . All for one or two individuals and
their arrogance ! One man sitting in the chair of Head of State is refusing
to listen to the majority of parliament , never minding consequences ! It is
the same people who gave power to the Executive , gave powers to the
parliament ! The majority in parliament means the majority of people ! AND
NOT TO COOPERATE WITH THE DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT BY
A MAN WHO WAS A PEANUT BEFORE 2015 MEANS , a grave situation !
This has turned out YOU or ME rather than law and order ! My instinct says
Srilanka already went back two hundred years ! Suicide mission that V P
set off with bombs and cyanide are now working without those stuffs !
It is becoming more and more clearer and clearer that the war victory was
aimed at personal benefit ! A BUNCH OF RACISTS ARE KEEN TO SEE THE
MAXIMUM DAMAGE TO ALL INSTITUTION FOR THEIR POWER GREED !
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Colomboge / November 15, 2018
FB has anyways lost its credibility internationallly.
Their future is marked and they are on the way to bankruptcy
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thondamany / November 15, 2018
Buddhist… Sri Lanka had no place in the World. It was either TGTE or the GTF or both. Otherwise, why should we have to apply for a VISA to travel yet they get rejected too.
Nimal… No speculation. Support your clain with facts as we too would like to know how you came to the conclusion.
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Native Vedda / November 16, 2018
thondamany
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“Buddhist… Sri Lanka had no place in the World.”
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Buddhists have a place in the world.
Why should Sri Lanka be given a place in the world?
Does it deserve a place?
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“why should we have to apply for a VISA to travel yet they get rejected too.”
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Why should anyone allow you to travel to their country?
What is the benefit to the host country?
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How did Gota get his US citizenship?
Usually US grant citizenship to the greatest butcher or support them no matter what they had committed in their country of birth, for example:
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Efrain Rios Montt, Guatemala
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan
Ayub Khan Pakistan
Yahya Khan Pakistan
Augusto Pinochet, Chile
Saddam Hussein, Iraq
Anastasio Somoza Garcia, Nicaragua
…
…
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Iran
…
….
USA loves dictators, Assgiria loves Hitler, …
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Manel Fonseka / November 15, 2018
I wonder how long CT will be allowed to operate.
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S Siva / November 15, 2018
Thank you Sirisena for exposing Sinhala Buddhist Leaders and Monks disrespect to Constitution, Democracy, Barbarianism, Mockery, and your hatred and violent culture to the international community. MPs’ physical attack inside the parliament sending a strong message to the International Community than thousands of Journalists writings.
Sri Lanka is a notorious country for political interference, leaders and state forces committing crimes against humanity with impunity. Rajapakse who is accused of abuses and war crimes should be allowed to show more of his colours until International Community take a strong action to put an end to Sinhala Buddhist communal and violent madness!
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Civil Vanguard / November 16, 2018
At last an act thar does not allegedly violate the constitution. Well done Mr. President sir.
Of course the American embassy must be having all this information already why not ask them? Too bad they are not your ‘pals’, Mr President.
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Gamunu / November 16, 2018
Shitsena cannot twist FB’s arm. FB is bound to regulations of the US and international standards. National security matters? B.S.! What serious consequences is he talking about? Last time they banned FB every onestill used FB via VPN. There are ways around. Sri Lanka’s decisions are not powerful or intelligent enough to spill to the rest of the world. This will isolate Sri Lanka more from the rest of the world! He ought to go back to Polonnaruwa and start tilling paddies and sing Pal Kavi.
PS. I guess Shitsena will want my IP address from the CT now.
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Thanga / November 16, 2018
The whole world is laughing at the events that are taking place from 8.30 pm on 26 October 2018. It is on that day Sirisena crowned his arch enemy turned prince.
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Punk-Aaaaaassss Buddist / November 16, 2018
You F##G DOG SOB ! there is Special Place in HELL For Pigs Like you !
You Sick Fu >>>>K want to turns this country into another Syria !
Not a bad Idea Comparing with angulimala who is the Ultimate mass murder & Serial Rapist of of Proud Buddhist Freeking Jaathaka Katha….This Democratic S>>>> FU>>>k
Thai F…..ing-Dog SOB can do the same ..Slaughter all of the People and say Because of KARMA…..I m gonna be heading for nirvana…..
/