Here’ our weekly roundup of the latest on Social Media in Sri Lanka and worldwide.
Our Blogs
This week our team wrote about:
- Do You Know Your Market? – Our team attended the CIM Talking Point Program – Marketing Insights 2017. Here is what we gathered from their pointers.
What Went Viral in Sri Lanka?
- Ranjan Ramanayake’s call to the Divisional Secretariat altered?
The video of Ranjan Ramanayake seemingly speaking to the Divisional Secretariat in a harsh tone, reprimanding her lead to the comparison between Ranjan and Mervin. However, in the light of the uncensored, unedited video clip that contains the entire call that the minister made to the said party, something completely different can be seen. It appears, quite transparently, that the Divisional Secretariat was intentionally avoiding the call a few times, where it is assumed that they were already aware that such a call to enquire about the “illegal soil excavations” that are happening in Divulapitiya, was coming their way. However once the lady answered the call, it appeared that she was diverting the responsibility of taking action against the charge to various other parties and hung up mid-call. Ranjan Ramanayake did lose his temper and reprimand the lady at the end of the video but the incidents that lead up to this outburst and its circumstances were completely taken out of context in the edited version. This brings to light something which has happened frequently on social media and other medias as well, identified as the reconstruction or manipulation of videos and audio recordings to suit a particular situation. It is also a gros misguiding of audiences concerned.
- Court rules in favour of SAITM
The court ruling in favour of SAITM caused a disturbance in the Government Medical Officer’s Association and the medical community recently. The important aspect of this was the fact that the GMOA included real time updates on their decisions that were being made in correspondence to the court decisions, on social media. For example while they published posts on their Facebook page on a regular basis opposing the SAITM issue, on their Twitter account, the GMOA let the public know that they were contemplating a strike in parallel with the progression of events, allowing the public to fully understand what the situation would be like and when a medical strike would happen.
GMOA to go for a strike.
Today's Derana cartoon #lka #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/k2RrUc9B0t
— Political CartoonLKA (@cartoonlka) February 3, 2017
- The Joint Opposition’s Rally
Held in Nugegoda on the 27th January 2017, the rally organized by the Joint Opposition saw a massive crowd gather to the city centre. Amid traffic jams and roadblocks, the rally moved steadily forward with the participation of Mahinda Rajapaksa. The post shared on Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Facebook page received over 14,429 shares and more than 42k likes. Over the past few months it has been clear that the former president’s PR team has been maximising the use of social media in order to reach a larger number of individuals both within and outside the country.
- The importance of “timely” education in Sri Lanka
The video of a few school students in Sri Lanka using their devices to record a group of other students while encouraging them to behave in an “undisciplined” manner during school hours, on school premises while in uniform has been doing the rounds on social media, especially Facebook. The video which was viewed by hundreds of people, was the object of much criticism and even anger in the case of parents and teachers. Reported on news, the education ministry also mentioned that they will do everything in their power to take the correct measures for such a situation while also stressing on the fact that girls can be pressured into such situations out of their gullible nature. This brings up an important aspect that was discussed recently with regards to cyber exploitation and Sri Lanka’s nude culture. In a time and age where social media and internet is pretty much running the show in our lives, more so in the case of naive teenagers, it truly indicates the importance of sexual education, awareness, and information on the multiple implications that such actions can bear and the correct use of technology be imparted to the children.
- Little heart donation page has reached 22,300 likes
The Little Hearts Facebook page successfully exceeded 22,000 likes this week. The page is being managed as means of getting support for the construction of a hospital wing for all critically ill children in Sri Lanka. The initiative is run under the eye of the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians.
This Week’s International Hubub
The Yemenis of NYC came together in a rally to protest against the #muslimban. Many went on to say that “this was the most beautiful and powerful demonstration” they had ever witnessed while hundreds of individuals took over the streets of NYC bowing in prayer and showing their opposition for the immigration ban. The movement went viral on Instagram under several hastags such as #BodegaStrike #MyYemeniNeighbor and #NoBanNoWall
In tears at the amazing turn out for #BodegaStrike by Yemenis and it's only 3pm. pic.twitter.com/JbFbPHwZLJ
— Dr.Debbie Almontaser (@DebbiAlmontaser) February 2, 2017
Stats of the Week
The facebook page for Dialog Axiata seems to have gained popularity with their social media marketing for the under 19 cricket tournament and the Dialog rugby tournament which will both be available live on Dialog TV, in addition to a new movie that will be shown on the Dialog TV Channel 7.
Gossip Lanka came in ranks as the fastest growing community pages in Sri Lanka on facebook. Their ability to reach the masses even outside of the island and the style of “hot topics” reporting and the variety of entertaining news items shared could be the possible reason behind the growing community.
The latest cricket season has been one filled with controversy and finger-pointing in the cricket scene in Sri Lanka. As such, the Island Cricket page came on top as the fastest growing Twitter Profile with their timely updates on the matches and the progress of the Sri Lankan team so far.
Things you should know
- Facebook’s New Tool Makes It Easy to Search for Photos You’re Not Tagged In
Joaquin candela, Facebook’s Director of Applied machine Learning stated that Facebook has a new AI based image tool which will identify images on the pixel level. She went on to explain further, that the new tool could help Facebook to identify between spam and appropriate content.
- Twitter’s latest feature prompts you to tweet your updated profile picture
Twitter has set up a new feature where any accounts with the newly updated profile pictures, will prompt the users to send out a new tweet to which #NewProfilePic will be appended. The feature targets to increase the amount of visual content as well as tweets.
- Snapchat releases user numbers for IPO Filing
Snapchat is popular and is gradually being installed by more and more users. However, according to Snap Inc, the owner of Snapchat, the IPO (Internal Public Offering) numbers which were filed on 02nd February 2017 indicated a loss of almost 01 billion USD in the past 2 years. The owner says that close to 158 million people use the app daily. Reuters reported that “Snap Inc., shot the opening salvo in its 3 Billion IPO on Thursday.” The report further mentioned that the owner put up a network of very aggressive expansion plans while offering their new investors no promise on returns or involvement in how the company is run.
#Snapchat finally released official user numbers in its IPO filing. 158M daily active users in Q4 2016. #socialmedia #smm pic.twitter.com/r5djJoBQND
— Socialbakers (@socialbakers) February 3, 2017
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