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SL to charge foreign digital giants

23 Dec 2020

  • Uber, Facebook in firing line

  • Aimed at protecting local businesses

By Hiranyada Dewasiri   The Government plans to charge an as-yet-undecided fee from multinational digital giants, such as Uber and Facebook, to protect local businesses and conserve foreign exchange, according to Mass Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.  Speaking to The Morning, Minister Rambukwella noted that the monopoly enjoyed by these multinational giants hurts Sri Lankan businesses, as the playing field is not levelled. As payments are made to foreign banks and companies, he added, it also affects foreign reserves.  He said that a system will be designed to register these foreign digital operators under the Ministry of Mass Media.  “The structure of registration is yet to be designed,” said the Minister, adding that a legal framework for this needs to be worked out.  Rambukwella stated that discussions would have to be carried out with these companies, and that the aim is not to discourage these platforms from functioning in the country, but to charge a fee from them.  “They are accumulating our data, and this is a problem for local businesses,” he said, adding that this is a system conceived to mitigate the revenue lost to the country because of how these multinational entities function.    “We are trying to initiate a system in response to a globally raised concern about the monopolies of companies such as Facebook,” said the Minister, pointing out how there is currently no mechanism to register such entities.  The Minister also stated that the Chinese system of dealing with such concerns, such as banning platforms like Facebook, will not be adopted in Sri Lanka, as he claimed “there is no democracy in that”.  Discussions are being carried out with stakeholders such as the Sri Lanka Press Council on how a mechanism could be designed to proceed with such registration. Rambukwella had previously made a statement on Sunday (20) that social media users would be registered, which received criticism on social media platforms.  The Minister responded to this on Monday (21), stating that his message was incorrectly conveyed, and that registering social media users is not the Government’s intention. “This has no link to social media platforms or social media users; there has been a misunderstanding,” the Minister reiterated to The Morning.


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