No plan to block social websites: MR tweets

President Mahinda Rajapaksa says there is no move to ban Facebook or Twitter in Sri Lanka adding that if he made such a move it will be faced with resistance from his own family.

Responding to a question raised during a Twitter interaction today, the President noted that he himself has a huge following on Facebook and Twitter and so there is no way he can place restrictions on such social media websites.

“I have more than 300K like on Facebook & more than 25K on Twitter. How can I & why should I block them. If I block these, I will have a revolution at home from my sons,” he said.

President Rajapaksa also said that the youth in the Northern Province enjoy equal rights and are not discriminated. He said that youth in the North are provided with all facilities that are in the schools in the South.

“Terrorism took away all the rights of these young people. We are restoring all of them,” the President added.

He also said that he will not allow any form of disharmony among religions in Sri Lanka and added that only a few incidents have been reported so far.

“We have never had religious-based violence, maybe a few incidents,” he said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa took part in the Question and Answer session on Twitter to coincide with the ongoing World Youth Conference in Sri Lanka.

The Q&A, moderated by President’s Secretary Lalith Weerathinga, was conducted via @PresRajapaksa and participants were able to pose questions using the hashtag #WCY2014MR.

Source: Colombo Gazette