Facebook has also banned the personal Facebook account of BBS Chief Executive Officer Dilantha Withanage.

This comes a few days after Facebook banned the ‘Bodu Bala Sena’ page and the Facebook account of its General Secretary Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera.

Witanage’s Facebook account has been banned on the grounds that he pasted ‘racist’ content on the page. There was a social media campaign among Sri Lankan Facebook users  over the past two weeks, urging users to ‘report’ users who post ‘racist content’ on their profiles and pages.

Facebook’s terms of service, the “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities”, clearly state: “You will not post content that: is hate speech”. Hate speech can target either a person or a group of people. It includes speech targeting all people of a particular race, nationality, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, sexuality, gender identity, gender, or on the basis of a medical condition or disability.