Here’s our latest update on the viral trends in social media in Sri Lanka and across the world last week.
This week our team wrote about:
Our Blogs
- Fighting Depression Online; is sharing a message with an invitation to talk enough to combat depression? Does social media fuel depression and if so, what are we doing wrong?
What Went Viral in Sri Lanka?
- Oil strike escalates to physical assault
The Petroleum Corporation worker’s strike in a movement against the Sri Lankan government signing a lease with the China Merchant Corporation for a 99 year lease of the Hambantota Port took an ugly turn when physical assault allegedly led by Marikkar, was carried out on protesters who were unarmed civilians. The oil strike caused many aspects of normal daily life in Sri Lanka to malfunction because of the shortage of oil that spread across the island. With over 4058 shares, this post on Facebook went viral with many people speaking against the said assault.
- The love story on Colombo’s streets that went viral
Several photographs of a couple walking hand in hand on the streets of Colombo went viral last week after it was published on the “Sakala Bujan” Facebook page. The boy was dressed in unclean rags and wore no slippers even though his feet were caked in mud and dirt. The girl, who was well dressed walked alongside him ignoring the curious and shocked looks of pedestrians all around. The post received 10k reactions and more than 448 comments with many people stating that the girl was ignorant to have chosen such a life partner while others commended on her courage and honesty. The real story behind the couple remains open to speculation.
This Week’s International Hubbub
- India Today magazine cover goes viral in China, triggers Photoshop battle
India Today’s magazine covers have always been thought of controversial and brave. The latest edition’s cover went viral on China’s Weibo which is a substitute for Twitter, to the disapproval of many Chinese. The cover features China in red as a rather large hen/rooster while Pakistan is featured right next to it as a small chick in green. The cover read “China’s New Chick. How China is buying out Pakistan with massive new investments and why India needs to worry” underneath the image. GT ed Hu Xijin then put out a video attacking the cover while Chinese users posted mock-up in revenge. All these incidents are happening while there is a current standoff between the Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam.
.@IndiaToday magazine cover goes viral in Chinese social media platforms. China is unhappy, Taiwan is glad. https://t.co/9vQ8S8jWVW
— India Today (@IndiaToday) July 28, 2017
- Stellenbosch racist attack goes viral on Facebook
Terence Makapan, a young man of colour, was attacked, allegedly by a white man and is now going viral as the latest in the line of Stellenbosch racist attacks. According to the victim, he and his friends were called a “hotnot” while they were walking in town. Terrence further stated that while the police at hand refused to help him and his friends there asking them to come back sober, when they did go to lay charges, they were quite helpful and fair. The post did go viral but many people seemed unclear of what the real situation was and had commented to say that while this attack is completely wrong, the real story also needs to be told.
Stats of the Week
Kanchayuda, a video game that was made in Sri Lanka has its Facebook page ranking among the top five fastest growing entertainment pages in the country. Surprisingly, despite this being a modern day invention and the fact that it is a video game, there is no good connection or collaboration between the YouTube channel and Facebook, which is unfortunate. Since the game is one of its kind in Sri Lanka, promoting well on Youtube could really reach a massive international audience, which is something the creators of this game are now missing out on.
Kanchayudha by Arimac YouTube Channel statistics are as follows:
Total Subscribers -1,028
Total Videos -13
Total views -58,104
Ranking among the top five fastest growing media Facebook pages in Sri Lanka, the radio station Shaa FM seems to be having a healthy relationship with their Youtube page, which could be the reason for its increasing viewers.
Shaa Fm YouTube Channel statistics are as follows:
Total Subscribers -9,701
Total Videos -999
Total views -7,772,395
Things you should know
- Facebook Messenger update makes business bots easier to deal with
Facebook has just launched a 2.1 update.The majority of these updates offer businesses with more assistance because Facebook is now concentrating on how their messenger bots work. The NLP or natural language processing feature now has the capability of identifying seven main characteristics of a message before it is passed along to the business’s bots. The bots help to flag important details of a message such as the date, time, location, contact number, amount of transaction and the email address of the person.