Here’s our latest weekly review of the hot and happening topics on social media in Sri Lanka and across the world
This week our team wrote about:
Our Blogs
- Facebook has more 18-year-old male users than walking the planet
We wrote about this amazing stat, which creates serious concern about the validity of Facebook’s data.
What Went Viral in Sri Lanka?
- Mahanama Big-Match Parade takes a wrong turn
A large number of Mahanama students, found themselves implicated in troubled waters after their Big-Match Parade took a turn for the worst. The incident took place when these students, under the influence of alcohol as speculated by the school and legal authorities, decided to forcibly enter the premises of Yashodara Balika in Borella. In the turn of events, one student was held back by the staff of the girls’ school which further aggravated the remaining Mahanamians. This led to vandalization of school property and even led to a physical struggle between the security of the school, teachers, police and the students. The student who was detained did manage to get away in the struggle but was later arrested by the police and is due to be produced before the court. The video of the incident went viral on Facebook and also provided pun for many of the memes that came out during the course of the week.
- Government introduces a new traffic controlling system in Colombo
Priority Lanes (separate bus lanes) are to be introduced in the usual traffic laden Rajagiriya area of Colombo. The aim of this move is to minimise the hectic traffic jams that plague the area, especially during rush hours. The video of Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka speaking on this cause and requesting the support of the general public to make its execution a success gathered a lot of public interest and many commented to say that the move is a good one, if correctly implemented and executed. Some of the others stated that the move might increase traffic as the flyover constructions are also on the way in the area.
- Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe’s decision on Port city past vs present
The inconsistency of statements made by Prime Minister Ranil Minister before the Yahapalanaya came into power with regards to Port City and the statements and actions carried out after, seem to be contradicting. Before the elections of 2015, Ranil Wickramasinghe stated that the Port City will cause erosion of the coastline and therefore one Maithreepala Sirisena comes into power, the project will be stopped. However, after the election was won, it has become apparent that they are now carrying out the Port City project, giving away, even more, land. The video of his speech compilations, posted on Facebook gathered over 22k views, 372 shares and 315 reactions most of which were negative. It has to be noticed, that the role of social media in politics, from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s and Maithreepala Sirisena’s Twitter accounts to political party Facebook profiles and videos such as this, has shown an increase. More people have begun to engage in these matters and express their opinion quite openly on the forums.
This Week’s International Hubub
- The Westminister Attack
Perhaps the biggest international incident this week the Westminster attack that shocked all of Britain. Over five lives were lost, including that of a brave policeman, PC Keith Palmer, who attempted to stop the terrorist from entering the parliament. On social media, especially Twitter, people from across the globe started sharing defiant, empowering and positive tweets, out of which #WestministerAttack, #WeStandTogether #PrayForLondon, WeAreNotAfraid and #LondonIsOpen trended the most. Tweets with images of quotes and motivational banners displayed across London were shared, while France turned off the lights of the Eiffel Tower in respect. Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau were among the political leaders to express their condolences and pledge their support to London. While an image of a girl in a hijab walking by with a mobile in hand while an injured individual lay on the sidewalk went viral on Twitter, a response came in the form of a presumably British couple clicking a selfie with the scene of the homicide behind them.
Yall are outraged at a muslim girl walking past. Meanwhile..#WestminsterAttack pic.twitter.com/XqJmzLKLms
— nasra ayub (@nasra_ayub) March 23, 2017
Well this sums it up…..#WeStandTogether #WeAreNotAfraid #WestminsterAttack
RT if you agree… pic.twitter.com/tK7d1bSYRn
— Kishan Devani FRSA (@Kishan_Devani) March 23, 2017
- “OMG Alien Baby Born in India” caption sparks outrage
Viral Frontiers, Facebook page shared a video of a newborn suffering from Harlequin Ichthyosis, a painful, debilitating and often fatal condition if treatment does not respond. The condition causes the newborns who are inflicted with the same to resemble a physical appearance which might even cause distress to sensitive individuals, However, the aforementioned caption, intended probably at making the video go viral, sparked an outrage with viewers who expressed their disgust and absolute disapproval of the page’s take on the child. Harlequin Ichthyosis is an extremely rare condition that causes a thick, rough and excessive amount of skin to grow on the body of the afflicted almost overnight which causes extensive pain, disability and discomfort. Those lucky survive to battle it out through their lives, others, simply succumb. The use of such sensitive information to increase views and reactions on social media pages has become an incredibly common practice and unless the information is worthy of such use, it is good that the viewers now stand up to discourage this practice.
Stats of the Week
Things you should know
- Facebook iOS Users Are Joining the Background Colors for Status Updates Party
Facebook began rolling out background colours for status updates, for Android users last December. It appears now, that they are rolling out the same for iOS as well. In the past weekend, many iOS users received access to this feature. The background colours can be seen by the user, irrespective of platform. The feature is estimated to finish its roll out process within the course of the next couple of weeks.
- Instagram for iOS adds support for downloading live videos to your Camera Roll
Instagram has announced that a new update for the iOS and Android apps will be introduced. This update has to do with live video and also adds support for downloading live videos once the broadcasting has ended.The social network also recently launched support for the geostickers to its Stories feature.