- As told by social media users
Social media is a tool – a powerful one at that. The ability to instantly upload pictures and documents, and share sentiments globally within seconds, when used wisely, can bring about immense good to communities.
In the context of the current situation in the country; social media has been incredibly useful when it comes to debunking fake news, sharing resources, and raising awareness of the crisis we are going through and highlighting the people’s fair demands.
Some, more than others, have learned the inner workings of social media, and have established themselves as influencers and content creators with thousands of followers; artists and public figures too, have access to their millions of followers at the touch of a button.
However, recently, local artists like Yohani de Silva and Iraj Weeraratne were deemed to be “cancelled” for what a large portion of the country claims to be deliberate misuse of their platform. Many dubbed Yohani’s statement on the current situation as ingenuine and to have ulterior motives.
Brunch spoke to a few content creators and public figures to understand their views on the responsible use of social media.
‘If you are blatantly causing societal unrest via your platform, it becomes a problem’ – Saasha Karunaratne
When one becomes a public figure of any kind – be it an influencer, artist or actor – if you have eyes on you, one has a social responsibility to people that consider you a person of interest is what Karunarathne, a content creator and TV and radio presenter, believes.
“Whether these people chose to speak out about a certain issue or not, is upto them – in certain situations, this is a decision they have to make themselves,” she stated, adding that this is as long as they aren’t creating chaos.
From her own observations, she noted that figures like Jacqueline Fernandez, Kumar Sangakkara, and a few others put out statements that could be interpreted in either way, and were notably bland.
“I understand that they want to play it safe because of their own personal connections, but whether that is excusable anymore is still to be determined,” she stated.
‘Because of social media, people are asking the right questions and not following public figures blindly’ – Thanuja Jayawardena
Sharing her perspective as a content creator, Thanuja Jayawardena, better known as Lola on social media, stated that in the era of the internet, most of us can’t claim to not know what’s going on with the country.
“A lot of us are not politically or legally savvy, but as the general public, we do have a say, and we do understand what is going on right now,” she told us, adding that even if one has only 10 followers, it is up to them to educate their audience and share their thoughts as the public figure they claim to be. Right now, she observed, people are using social media wisely and they are not afraid to speak up.
Using the Mirihana protest as an example; she told us that when people claimed that it was turning violent, social media proved it was not a violent protest, and that there were a few questionable individuals that were causing mayhem.
“The protest at Galle Face is shown to the entire world as peaceful – there were a few people that attempted to throw bottles at policemen and the protesters stopped them from doing such – all recorded and uploaded immediately online,” she shared, adding that because of social media, people are asking the right questions and not following public figures blindly.
She told us that she has lost respect for a lot of artistes right now. She specifically commented on the controversy over Iraj and Yohani, saying: “If you used your platform before to encourage your audience to vote for a certain party, claiming it to be for the betterment of the country, seeing the crisis we are going through right now, you need to voice out what is good for the country. If you don’t, you only advocated before for your own benefit.”
Lola also highlighted that these protests are not anti-parliamentarian, but are anti-Government – the people are fighting to end the Rajapaksa dynasty and instead, put educated leaders in charge.
The Morning Brunch got in touch with Yohani’s management for an official statement regarding the allegations being made against her online and what her stance is on the current situation in Sri Lanka, to which they responded that they were unable to comment at this time.
