Sri Lanka Police say strict legal action will be taken against people who spread false and unverified information on social media, with the Police Media Spokesperson citing the Computer Crimes Act and the Penal Code as the statutes under which offenders would be prosecuted.
Police Media Spokesperson, Assistant Superintendent of Police F. U. Wootler, said all necessary measures are being taken to initiate legal action against such offenders, NewsFirst reported on Wednesday morning. He urged the public not to be misled by false and unverified reports.
Hiru News, filing earlier the same morning, adds both the occasion and the reasoning. Wootler made the remarks while speaking to the media on Tuesday (13) — so the statement is a day older than either filing. He said incidents of individuals spreading false information through social media are being reported regularly, and that such posts have often caused public unrest, misled the public and spread fear.
Hiru also reports that police are closely monitoring such publications, and that Wootler urged the public to refrain from sharing false or unverified material.
No incident is named
Neither outlet identifies a post, rumour or episode that prompted the warning. Wootler’s reported justification is a pattern — incidents “reported regularly” — rather than a specific case, and no filing gives a figure for how many such reports police have received, how many investigations are open, or how many prosecutions have been brought under either statute.
That absence is worth stating plainly, because it is what separates this from an enforcement announcement. It is a general advisory of the kind police have issued repeatedly: this newsroom has covered similar warnings over fraudulent traffic-fine payment pages and over burglary rumours circulating before the Avurudu holidays.
Not reported
The most consequential gap is the threshold. Neither filing reports what distinguishes a false or unverified post from lawful comment, criticism or inaccurate opinion — a line the Computer Crimes Act’s offences do not obviously draw, and the question that determines how broadly the warning reaches. No provision of either statute is cited by section.
Neither outlet reports whether any arrests have been made, whether the police have referred specific accounts for investigation, or whether platforms have been asked to remove material. There is no comment from the Ministry of Public Security, the Human Rights Commission, or any media or digital-rights organisation on the scope of the warning.
