| More than 700 complaints have been lodged against Facebook misuses, with the daily rate around 10-15, according to a senior official of the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT).
Senior Information Security Engineer Rohana Palliyaguru said that most of the complaints have been lodged by Facebook users in their early twenties, complaining of fake profiles.
He further said that, though there are other social networks such as My Space and Twitter, Facebook is the most popular among Sri Lankans, and that, all the complaints are of Facebook misuses.
According to Socialbakers, currently, more than 900,000 Sri Lankans are active members of Facebook, of whom 45% are in the age group of 18-24.
He added that the SLCERT has made arrangements with Facebook to handle and resolve complaints on fake profiles directly with them. “But if they decide to take legal action, we direct them to the CID, as we cannot help them there,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Harsha Wijayawardhana, Head of the Software Development Unit- School of Sciences, University of Colombo, said that it is difficult to take legal action against Facebook misuses as Facebook comes under US jurisdiction.
“According to US jurisdiction, one cannot demand to take any content out of a website such as Facebook without a court order. Though one could say that a particular person running a profile on Facebook tarnishes one’s image, that won’t count much to remove that content from Facebook, unless a crime has been committed,” he explained.
However, he added that a formal complaint to Facebook as directed in the profiles, could result in the US Facebook administration deleting the fake profile. “But it can happen the other way too, resulting in a true profile being deleted. Then you have to seek other measures,” he explained.
Sri Lanka has risen from 82nd to 73rd in the top 100 countries with the highest number of Facebook users, since 2008.
Mr. Wijayawardhana further said that many misuses occur concerning social networking sites because people do not grasp the fact that internet is not safe. “In social networking sites, if members do not tighten the security of ther profiles they would be sharing personal information with total strangers,” he explained.
Many Asian countries have shown a large growth percentage in the number of Facebook users within the last three years with Indonesia growing 3481.7%, Philippines 4738%, India 1513%, Malaysia 1022% and Thailand 3890%, since 2008.
However, several complaints have been lodged by parents regarding underage children involved in Facebook. Though, in Sri Lanka, children with Facebook profiles are as low as 5%, National Child Protection Authority Chairperson Anoma Dissanayake said that parents should take complete responsibility over their children in such matters.
She added that career parents hardly relate to their children in today’s competitive society, where they come home to relax alone and indulge themselves in television. “They do not realise that most children use the time their parents spend in front of the television, to log onto to questionable sites in the internet and become exposed to immoral conduct,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) Chairman Anusha Palpita said the TRC receives complaints only after they are forwarded to the courts but it does not monitor the matter thoroughly, refusing to comment further. |
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