The Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government would b enacting laws aimed at controlling hate speech on social media. 

“A number of countries in the world have introduced laws to control social media and hate speech. The UK has laws in place to control hate speech. So has Kenya. There are laws to control social media in Germany,” Mr Wickremesinghe was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena on Thursday tweeted saying he had instructed the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) to end the ban on accessing the social media website, Facebook. 

He said the decision came after the presidential secretary Austin Fernando had held discussions with Facebook officials. 

The ban on Viber ended yesterday, amid widespread criticism of the government's decision to impose restrictions on access to social media following attacks on Muslims in Kandy earlier this month. 

The Sri Lankan government has continued with its policy of granting interest free loans to Sri Lankan troops, despite struggling to repay record levels of debt.

^{Photograph: JDS}

The leader of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a Sinhala Buddhist extremist group, was seen attending an event with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in Tokyo this week, just days after deadly anti-Muslim riots erupted on the island.

Footage emerged of BBS chief Galagodaaththe Gnanasara seated on the front row of a packed room at the Imperial hotel in Tokyo, whilst Mr Sirisena delivered a speech.

The Sri Lankan government accused Facebook of failing to act swiftly to curb hate speech by Sinhala Buddhist extremists on the social media platform, which it says stoked anti-Muslim riots on the island last week.

Harin Fernando, Sri Lanka’s telecommunications minister, said “this whole country could have been burning in hours”.

Speaking to the Guardian, he added that “hate speech is not being controlled by these organisations and it has become a critical issue globally”. “

Facebook is not reacting as fast as we have wanted it to react. In the past it has taken various number of days to review [flagged posts] or even to take down the pages.”

Eight schools still under Sri Lankan army occupation in the Valikamam North 'high security zone' should be released for resumption of educational activities, the Northern Provincial Council has said.

In a resolution brought by the council member P. Kajatheepan, the council called on the Sri Lankan government to secure the release of the schools from army occupation and hand over control to the NPC so that educational activities could resume.

The chairman of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) on Tuesday announced the body was commencing its operations, adding that the OMP was much overdue. 

"The main purpose of the OMP is to address the suffering of the many thousands of families living in all parts of the country whose loved ones have gone missing or disappeared during multiple conflicts in Sri Lanka," the chairman said in a statement. 

Statement reproduced below: 

Families of the disappeared in Kilinochchi met with officials from the Swiss embassy on Tuesday, on their 387th day of protest. 

Holding photographs of their missing loved ones, families expressed their frustration at the government's failure to provide answers despite over one year of protests. 

Sri Lankan authorities arrested 23 Indian nationals today in Colombo, for allegedly violating their visas. 

The arrests were made in a morning raid by the Department of Immigration and Emigration. 

The arrested people, including 9 fortune tellers will be repatriated, the assistant controller, M G V Kariyawasam said. 

The Sri Lankan government is to end the restriction on Viber tonight, the Director General of Government Information Sudarshana Gunawardana said in a statement, amid rising pressure to end the social media ban. 

Yesterday the US ambassador to Colombo, Atul Keshap tweeted:

"The longer the #SriLanka #SocialMediaBan persists, the greater the damage to tourism, the IT sector, business, and the nation's reputation for freedom and openness.  So many Sri Lankans also rely on #socialmedia to connect with loved ones overseas."