Revitalizing ‘Digital Democracy’: Regulating Social Media Discourses in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Digitalization in the 21st century largely contributed to the evolution of the world. The idea of ‘Digital Democracy’ believes in improving democracy through more citizen discussion on public policies and active participation in decision-making processes in the digital sphere. Social media facilitates a large cluster of the public in promoting democratic values in cyberspace. Yet, such unfettered and unlimited opportunity occasionally clutches up, giving birth to the surfeit of hate speech and fake news as deleterious consequences. Sri Lanka also witnessed several incidents, including the social media cohesion, which arose immediately after the ‘Easter Sunday Attacks’ in 2019. The urge to regulate social media has been recognized all around the world. This research adopts a comprehensive socio-legal study addressing the compulsion of regulating social media to protect democratic values on the internet. The research primarily concentrates on the Sri Lankan legal jurisprudence while adopting a comparative study. The paper attempts to dive in and analyze the legal framework and the effectiveness in regulating social media in Sri Lanka. As a comparative view, the study suggests various measures adopted by different states in regulating social media. As the significant outcome of the paper, it proposes a combination of legal and extralegal measures that would be the prime choice in regulating social media in Sri Lanka without stifling the free speech and expression that are the backbones of a ‘democratic society.