Sri Lanka Social Media Weekly News Update

Sri Lanka Weekly Social Media News Update 08/05/2017

Read our latest analytical review on the hot social media buzz last week in Sri Lanka and across the world

This week our team wrote about:

Our Blogs:

  • The Killer “Blue Whale”: An analysis of the trending #BlueWhale online game that has claimed, supposedly, the lives of many vulnerable teenagers across the world
  • Twitter Drama: Are comments on social media taken too seriously or personally? Here’s why.

What Went Viral in Sri Lanka?

  • Common opposition leads the biggest May Day rally in Sri Lanka

The May Day saw many political rallies happening all around Sri Lanka. President Maithreepala Sirisena visited the Kandy city for the rally held at Gatambe. However, it appears that the Common Opposition led the largest May Day rally of this year’s rallies. The enormous sea of people that flocked to the Galle Face stretch to take part in this rally led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, is sure to have set off some red alerts for the current government.

  • Geetha Kumarasinghe loses her parliamentary seat due to dual citizenship

Geetha Kumarasinghe has been under the spotlight for losing her parliamentary seat due to dual citizenship. However, it does look like many other ministers have the same issue but have had no legal action taken about it whatsoever. The majority of comments on the video suggest that “if she goes they go too”, indicating that the public would like to see everybody served with the same ladle as opposed to some ministers receiving special privileges for whatever connections they might have.

This Week’s International Hubub

  • President Trump signs executive order to “vigorously promote religious liberty”

The EO signed by President Trump on Thursday means that churches and other religious organisations will be allowed to become more politically active. However, the actual implications of the document seem, as of now, to be limited. The signing of the order happened during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House and tells the IRS to not take “adverse action” against churches or any other tax-exempted religious organisations that participate in politics with the exception of an endorsement of a candidate for office. The tweet went viral with many asking questions about possible negative repercussions that could arise out of this move.

  • Police arrested the man suspected of robbing a disabled woman at a Tampa ATM after it went viral

The Tampa Police were able to successfully arrest the suspect of an assault and robbery that took place at an ATM in the Tampa city. The suspect was clearly caught on CCTV attacking an elderly lady and robbing her while she was just finishing up an ATM transaction. The lady standing next to the victim, had done absolutely nothing to help her during the assault and instead calmly carries on with her transaction. However, the video went viral and the police issued a request for help to identify the suspect, which was answered effectively. It’s one of those instances where social media really helped towards the betterment of society.

  • Kajol deletes her viral ‘beef’ video after getting trolled for it on social media

Bollywood actress Kajol came under fire after she posted a video clip of a beef dish that was served for lunch at her friend’s house. Beef is banned in Maharashtra and many parts of India as they see the cow as a sacred animal and even worship it. However, after the video clip went viral and she was trolled on both her Instagram and Facebook accounts, the actress removed the clips and clarified that the dish was actually buffalo meat and not beef. Buffalo meat, she said is legally available. She also further stated that this issue is sensitive and that she does not want to hurt anybody’s’ religious sentiments.

Stats of the Week

Elephant House has done well in the usage of attractive TV adverts that draw in the target market which is the young crowd.However, comparatively, the statistics reveal that they do not cross-promote or maintain their YouTube channel effectively, which if they did, they could gather more of a following.

Elephant House Social media

The YouTube stats for Elephant House are as follows:

Total Subscribers -0
Total Videos -37
Total views -196,341

The recent May Day rally held at Galle Face seems to have had a massive impact on the social media profile and following of Namal Rajapksa on Facebook as the numbers showed a clear influx of likes and followings. Comparatively, the total amount of subscribers seems to be a bit low on his YouTube channel even though  720 videos have been uploaded.

Namal Rajapaksa Social Media

Namal Rajapaksa YouTube Channel statistics are as follows:

Total Subscribers -1,385
Total Videos -720
Total views -359,415

Things you should know

  • New WhatsApp features revealed on latest beta version

The live location feature was recently improved on Whatsapp and now the company has rolled out several new and improved features on their latest beta version.

There are several add-ons that have been included such as pinned chats and a new VoIP interface. The pinned chats feature on beta is only available for 03 chats aka, you can pin 03 chats that you use the most, on top of your conversation list.

Sources have also hinted at a video-GIF converting button that might be made available for when shooting within the app.  

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