Facebook expresses concern over ban

Facebook said yesterday it was responding to Sri Lanka’s concerns over incendiary material shared on its platform and hoped Internet restrictions imposed during anti-Muslim riots last week would be lifted soon.The government has refused to end an island-wide blackout on Facebook until the tech giant agrees to take quicker action to remove hateful content.“We are responding to the situation in Sri Lanka and are in contact with the government and non-governmental organisations to support efforts to identify and remove such content,” a Facebook spokesperson said.“We are concerned with the way access to the internet is being restricted and depriving people of important connections and expression, and we hope that access will be restored soon.”Facebook said it was increasing staff numbers but gave no further details.It is believed to have 14,000 staff across the globe tasked with reviewing offensive content and the number is tipped to rise to 20,000 by the end of this year.Censorship and media oppression was used widely by strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse, who for a decade in power ordered local internet providers to block anti-government sentiment online.His successor President Maithripala Sirisena was elected in 2015 promising an end to draconian government restrictions, but some websites critical of the government were blocked even before the ban on Facebook.