Centre for Policy Alternatives on 7 November, 2019

Letter to Facebook: Urgent need for rollout of platform affordances for greater oversight of campaign spending

7 November 2019, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is releasing a letter sent to Mr Senura Abeywardene, the Country Representative for Sri Lanka at Facebook, on 30 September 2019, with specific asks around ads oversight in relation to the 2019 Presidential Election. Download the letter as a PDF here. It is also […]

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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 28 January, 2019

Concerns around and challenges arising from Facebook’s communications policy in Sri Lanka

28 January 2019, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) notes with concern the coverage afforded to a meeting with senior Facebook officials, including Ankhi Das[1], the Public Policy Director for India, South & Central Asia, and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Photos of the meeting included what appeared to be the exchange of […]

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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 18 October, 2018

CPA Condemns Censorship of ‘Unframed’ at the University of Peradeniya

18 October 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka: ‘Unframed’ is a compelling collection of photography, curated by Vikalpa, the Sinhala civic media platform anchored to the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). The exhibition highlights and places in context critically acclaimed photography featured on the site or taken by editorial staff over ten years. This week, the exhibition was […]

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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 1 August, 2018

Digital Dangers: CPA Flags Continued Use of Disinformation, Propaganda and Hate Speech in Sri Lanka

Disinformation, propaganda and hate speech continues to distort the digital space in Sri Lanka, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) noted during a panel discussion organised by the Information Safety and Capacity (ISC) Project, which provides information security and capacity building assistance to civil society organisations, rights activists and independent media. The discussion was held […]

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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 6 June, 2018

Meeriyabedda to Makaldeniya: Life after the Landslide

The Meeriyabedda-Koslanda landslide of October 2014 drew national attention both for the massive destruction it caused and for the gaps it exposed in Sri Lanka’s disaster response mechanisms. The subsequent resettlement efforts and updating of relief and response protocols have been hailed by the government as comprehensive and effective. More than three years after the disaster took place, the […]

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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 23 April, 2018

Weaponising 280 characters: What 200,000 tweets and 4,000 bots tell us about state of Twitter in Sri Lanka

April 23rd, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is pleased to announce the release of its latest report on social media, Weaponising 280 characters: What 200,000 tweets and 4,000 bots tell us about state of Twitter in Sri Lanka. The report is available for immediate download here. The report is a collaboration between […]

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Centre for Policy Alternatives on 12 April, 2018

Facebook responds to open letter from Sri Lankan civil society

A day after our open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook representatives from Delhi, India, on his behalf, responded. The email is reproduced below in full. It is worth noting at the outset that this is the first official response from Facebook we have received after many years of engaging with the company around the issues […]

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