Here’s our latest overview of the hottest topics on social media in Sri Lanka and around the world last week.
This week our team wrote about;
Our Blogs
#Metoo; the inside out of the trend that took over the internet
What went Viral in Sri Lanka?
- Meteors in the southern sky
There was quite a stir on social media last week with the meteor shower that was visible from the southern area of the country. While there were many rumours on certain news sites that it could be some kind of unidentified object crashing, it has now been clarified that this was in fact a meteor shower that was clearly visible from Earth.
- Old woman jailed after picking 3 mangoes from a neighbor
This story caused quite a buzz on social media after it was posted on Facebook. The lady who was arrested had simply plucked 03 mangoes from a neighbor’s tree as she wanted to cook them for a meal. The neighbor who saw this had immediately gone on the offensive chasing the lady and later filing a complaint with the police with a much higher number of mangoes as opposed to the original amount she plucked. This small matter went so far that the lady has to be actually taken into remand to be sent before a court. However, the villagers had gotten together to give her 100,000 rupees worth body bail and free her. The story has been shown as a rather sad example of how far we have come down as a race.
- Student who passed grade 5 scholarship visited Maithripala Sirisena
The Twitter account of President Maithreepala Sirisena tweeted his conversation with the little girl who excelled in the Grade 5 scholarship examination that is held in all schools in Sri Lanka. While the majority of tweets were quite biased and had racial undertones, others pointed out blankly that even such simple things should not be looked at from a racist angle.
The greatest gift you can give someone is your time.
I’ve spent some minutes talking with little Amani Raidha. pic.twitter.com/o3Bp63B42C— Maithripala Sirisena (@MaithripalaS) October 13, 2017
This Week’s International Hubbub
- Haryanvi singer Harshita Dahiya talked about the threats she was receiving and was murdered
Harshita Dahiya is a singer in Haryanvi India who had been receiving death threats over calls about which she posted a video on Facebook Live. She accused certain ‘powerful people’ in the industry of threatening her. Her past is also one shrouded in controversy as she was a witness to her mother’s murder and had filed a rape case against her brother-in-law. She was shot dead and investigations are in progress. The post is viral on Facebook where many viewers had blamed the legal system in India as being not competent enough.
- Storm Ophelia in Europe
The Storm Ophelia in Europe allegedly caused a waterfall in Cumbria, UK to invert resulting in a gravity-defying spectacle. The tweet is viral even though some tweets claimed that the video is fake.
Watch Storm Ophelia’s winds cause this waterfall to invert pic.twitter.com/vqaZs6HpBQ
— TIME (@TIME) October 18, 2017
Stats of the Week
Gossip Lanka News has consistently come among the top five fastest growing community Facebook pages in Sri Lanka. They do not maintain a good relationship with their YouTube channel despite this, yet manage to hold on to their ranking.
Gossip-Lanka News YouTube Channel statistics are as follows:
Total Subscribers -16,065
Total Videos -184
Total views -7,515,699
Sirasa TV uses YouTube as much as it does Facebook for maintaining timely news videos and the likes.
Sirasa TV YouTube Channel statistics are as follows:
Total Subscribers -87,634
Total Videos -12,987
Total views -76,955,486
Things you should know
- Facebook takes on Pinterest with ‘Sets’ tool that lets users share themed status updates, photos and videos in one post
The newest feature that Facebook is testing is very similar to ‘Pinterest Boards’. Users can now create collections of sorts based on various themes that are hobby or interest centric, which can then be shared with other users who are friends. The feature is only in test with selected users and will be rolled out globally.