Abstract:
Sri Lankan parliament recently enacted Online Safety Act No. 9 of 2024 (OSA 2024) which
purportedly aims to provide greater protection for Sri Lankan women against gendered
online violence. From its inception, Online Safety Bill attracted severe criticisms due to its
potential negative impact on freedom of expression. Despite public protests, the government
maintained its stance, emphasising its promise to address challenges posed by online harm, with
a particular focus on protecting women and children. Gendered online violence is a global issue
that affects women across the globe and Sri Lanka is not an exception to this phenomenon.
Women, including those with public profiles, are prone to different forms of online abuse
and already existing threats against them have evolved embracing new online facets. Such
transformed threats range from casual sexist comments to publishing revenge porn. These
also include harassment, doxing, cyber mobbing, sharing of unsolicited nudes, and deep fake
videos of women. In this context this paper offers to examine some selected provisions of part
III of OSA 2024, relating to prohibition on online communication of false statements. The
objective of this doctrinal research is to understand whether they adequately provide protection
against gendered online violence against women in Sri Lanka. It suggests that OSA 2024 only
addresses limited instances of gendered online violence and fails to adequately protect Sri
Lankan women against various forms of ...
