By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera
Colombo, Oct. 22 (Daily Mirror) - The Government has paid special attention on attempts to incite racial and religious tensions among communities through fake social media accounts, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Parliament yesterday.
He said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and intelligence units had launched investigations into such incidents.
The Minister said the CID and the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) had investigated six complaints relating to hate speech over the past 10 years.
With social media usage growing in Sri Lanka, individuals both locally and overseas had been using fake accounts to create racial and religious tensions among communities, he said.
Wijepala said law enforcement authorities faced difficulties in investigating such incidents due to the absence of formal complaints in some cases, the overseas operations of certain account holders and gaps in the existing legal provisions.
However, he said the police were taking steps to identify those behind such accounts and investigate the incidents.
Responding to a question raised by MP M. L. A. M. Hizbullah, the Minister said a 26-year-old man from Ibbagamuwa had been arrested for allegedly spreading hate speech through fake social media accounts using the names of Muslim individuals.
The suspect had allegedly created WhatsApp groups using Muslim names and circulated messages claiming that an attack on Buddhist religious sites, including the Temple of the Tooth, had been planned for November 11, 2026, the Minister said.