The first prohibition order under Sri Lanka’s “Online Safety Act”, which was recently passed to regulate social media, has been issued by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.
According to media reports, Colombo Magistrate Prasanna Alwis issued the order on Thursday (Apr 04) after taking up for consideration a complaint that had been filed by the former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), Janaka Ratnayake.
The prohibition order has been issued against eight persons, including Gayatri Bimba who had been employed as a personal assistant to Ratnayake and now resides overseas.
The Colombo Magistrate’s Court has also ordered the companies of Google and WhatsApp to be notified of the prohibition order.
In his complaint, Ratnayake claimed that Gayatri Bimba had worked as his personal assistant since 1999 and maintained a close relationship with him due to which she knew highly confidential information about his personal and professional life.
Ratnayake said that they had several explicit photographs and videos from the relationship, which she had taken over after the relationship had ended. He further alleged that the woman had shared the pictures and videos on WhatsApp, while she had also shared confidential information about him while participating in talk shows on YouTube.
Thereby, Ratnayake had requested the court to issue an injunction to prevent the publication, dissemination and communication of personal information about him to harass him.
Although the Commission under the Online Security Act has not been established thus far, an injunction was sought from the Magistrate’s Court under the provisions of the Act.
Considering the facts presented, the Magistrate ordered that a conditional order be issued preventing the publicizing and communicating of personal information related to Ratnayake through social media to harass him. (Newswire)