Wednesday Nov 27, 2024
Wednesday Nov 27, 2024
Friday, 21 June 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Monish Wijemanne
Sri Lanka’s top IT industry body Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) and Sri Lanka Unites yesterday said it has joined to create a team of about 200 volunteers to fight fake news and hate speech online after the Easter Sunday attacks, and aims to expand awareness of racism with two new initiatives.
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Mass Media and State Minister of Defence (Non-Cabinet) Ruwan Wijewardene |
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SLASSCOM Chairman Jeevan Gnanam |
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Sri Lankan cricket coach and former cricketer Mahela Jayawardene |
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Global Unites President and Founder Prashan De Visser |
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SLASSCOM Chairman Jeevan Gnanam (L) and Anzyz Technologies CEO Svein Olaf |
One such effort is launching a new forum to connect SLASSCOM member Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to build a platform to discuss key issues facing the country in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, including hate speech and fake news.
The first meeting of this initiative was organised by SLASSCOM and Sri Lanka Unites on Wednesday and titled “CEO Connect,” where stakeholders discussed the need to raise awareness on the spread of hate speech in social media and how it has sparked widespread anti-Muslim violence and boycott of Muslim-owned businesses.
SLASSCOM Chairman Jeevan Gnanam, addressing the gathering, stated SLASSCOM felt the need to hold a forum to build a wide-ranging discussion on the need to build stronger inter-communal relations, as well as the importance of effectively tackling hate speech and racism, especially online.
“Together with Sri Lanka Unites, we hope to ensure the safety of our country by abolishing the condemnable acts happening within it. It is a privilege to step forward and raise the attentiveness of business leaders and across SLASSCOM member companies in order to create a more secure environment within the nation,” he said.
Gnanam emphasised that one tool to utilise to fight hate speech is Artificial Intelligence and SLASSCOM is partnering with Norwegian based tech company ANzyz to use the software to help fight hate speech and fake news online. This self-learning software is able to understand both the context and sensitivity of a post whether it is in English, Sinhala or Tamil, and flag it for moderation.
State Minister of Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene opined it is better that a non-governmental organisation makes use of Artificial Intelligence to combat against hate speech on social media.
“Politicians can manipulate regulations for their own gain. We must not push the innocent Muslims because of a misguided few as we need to learn from our past mistakes such as that of 1983,” says Wijewardene.
ANzyz CEO Svein Olaf Olsen says “we should take into new technology to fight against bad side of new technology.”
Global Unites President Prashan De Visser stated that ethno-religious identities continue to trump the Sri Lankan identity, and that as long as people continue to have such a mind-set Sri Lanka will not be able to thrive as a country.
Former Sri Lankan Cricket Captain Mahela Jayawardene, who has been working with Sri Lanka Unites, called for the end to segregation of schools based on religion and ethnicity, pointing out that this sort of separation reduced opportunities of interaction and bonding between the younger generations.
“How can you force a 45-week-old child to choose their race and religion? There is no point in saying we are Sri Lankan if you don’t feel it, the reason we don’t feel it, is because of segregation.”
Pic by Shehan Gunasekera
