📈 Digital Privacy: Legal Risks of Viral Content in Sri Lanka

A socio-legal review warns that Sri Lanka’s culture of viral sharing is creating a "collective complicity" in privacy violations. With over 8.2 million social media users as of 2025, the rapid spread of non-consensual intimate content poses severe risks to individual dignity and national digital trust. • Legal Framework & Penalties Obscene Publications Act: Criminalizes the production, distribution, and possession of "obscene" material. Every "share" or "forward" is treated as a fresh offense. Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) No. 9 of 2022: Classifies intimate content as "sensitive personal data." Sharing such data without consent is unlawful, shifting the legal focus from "morality" to "individual harm." Liability: Claiming "I did not create the content" provides no legal immunity for those who distribute it. • Socio-Economic Impact Reputational Harm: Victims face secondary trauma and social ostracism, which is particularly severe in the Sri Lankan context of "family honor." Digital Trust: Continued violations erode trust in digital platforms, potentially hindering the ICT/BPM sector and the growth of the digital economy (which accounted for ~5% of GDP in recent years). Media Ethics: Sensationalism by news outlets for "clicks" exacerbates victim trauma and normalizes voyeurism. • Action Plan for Mitigation Enforcement: Rigorous application of the Penal Code and PDPA to deter offenders. Platform Accountability: Urging rapid takedown procedures and stricter moderation by tech giants. Literacy: National campaigns to educate the public that "sharing" is a punishable crime. _Note: Legal provisions under the PDPA are being implemented in phases through 2026._