The social media ban imposed by the government to quell the racial clashes had failed to achieve the desired results anticipated by the government, a survey had revealed, said Rajarata University Lecturer Software Engineer Pathum Ratnayake.
The survey revealed that although the government had imposed the social media ban, 58% had accessed social media through the virtual private networks (VPN), he said.
He revealed that 95% of the users had not known about VPN at the time they joined the network, while some had paid around Rs. 100 to mobile shops to download VPN.
Around 9% of those participating in the survey had refused to express their views. However, what is notable is that 95% of those who participated in the survey had used VPN.
Among those who participated in the survey, 43% said the social media blockage was unsuccessful, 29% said their daily activities were affected by this blockage and 37% said they strongly opposed the move to block social media.
Ratnayake also noted that some tuition teachers had also educated students on how to download and use VPN on social media such as WhatsApp.
FB contemplating leaving SL!
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Translators Collective stated that due to the constant blockage of FB and other social media in Sri Lanka, these companies are planning on packing up and leaving Sri Lanka.
They had noted that as the actions by the Sri Lankan government to block social media could be a negative example to other countries and could have a negative effect on their services, measures could be taken in the future to stop providing these services to Sri Lanka.
(Mirror)