“UNDO Doesn’t Work in Real Life”: New campaign launched to tackle harmful speech and promote social cohesion

A public awareness campaign, titled “UNDO Doesn’t Work in Real Life,” was launched yesterday to address the growing threat of harmful speech and misinformation, while fostering empathy, accountability and responsible storytelling in Sri Lanka.

- 

This joint campaign is a collaborative initiative by the United Nations in Sri Lanka together with the Ministry of Health and Mass Media and is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNICEF in Sri Lanka, with support from the UN Sri Lanka SDG Fund.

Held in Colombo, the launch event saw the participation of Dr. Hansake Wijeman, Deputy Minister of Health and Mass Media, Marc-Andre Franche, Resident Coordinator, United Nations Sri Lanka; Azusa Kubota, Resident Representative - UNDP Sri Lanka; and Christian Skoog Representative - UNICEF Sri Lanka officials.

Commenting on the effects of dangerous speech, Dr. Hansaka Wijeman, Deputy Minister of Health and Mass Media, noted, “The power to combat hate speech misinformation and disinformation does not lie only with the government, tech companies and journalists; it lies also with the people. Let us work together to strengthen the policies to combat online hate speech and misinformation.”