The country was earlier involved in a three-decade internal conflict between the State and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – a proscribed terrorist organization – that ended in May 2009.
[4] The bombs set off by Islamist militants on Easter Sunday 2019 caused widespread panic fueled by fake news and misinformation about the security situation, specifically targeting the Muslim minority in Sri Lanka.
The government reacted by blocking access to social media channels[5] which they claimed were being used by mobs to coordinate reciprocal attacks on vulnerable communities,[6] and to spread hate speech.
Households and businesses were attacked and destroyed in several areas, resulting in one death in Kottaramulla[10] and the destruction of Sri Lanka's largest pasta factory in Minuwangoda.
[14] The post-Easter 2019 fake news campaigns singled out several large businesses deemed to be owned by Muslims, including local ride-hailing company PickMe[15] and corporate giants such as Hemas Holdings.
[20][non-primary source needed] Stationery company Atlas Axillia – which was earlier acquired by publicly listed Hemas Holdings[21] – also came under severe attack.
Similar to the PickMe issue, fake news was spread online on the Atlas Axillia acquisition, saying that Muslims were buying over Sinhala businesses and using profits to fund terrorists.
In a press conference, PickMe Chairman Ajit Gunewardene revealed that images manipulated to mislead the public in fake news campaigns were originally from an unrelated event in the UK.
[26][27] Facebook representatives met with Sri Lankan authorities to cooperate on enforcing stricter moderation on the platform to stem hate speech against Muslims.