Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel On June 9, 2026, the Colombo High Court delivered its verdict in four cases filed by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption against former Minister Sarana Gunawardena. Within hours, social media circles read two quite different stories. Some mainstream outlets and social media users reported that the […]
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As the third phase of excavations at the Chemmani mass grave site in Sri Lanka’s north continues to yield harrowing finds, a wave of viral photographs has been circulating on social media claiming to document the discoveries firsthand. Some of those images, however, have nothing to do with Chemmani at all. Fact Crescendo investigated. Social […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel Distorting figures and presenting them out of context is a well-established tactic in online misinformation. A post circulated on Sri Lankan social media comparing the construction costs of the Southern Expressway and the Rambukkana-Galagedara section of the Central Expressway, presenting figures that appeared to show the current government spending almost […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel False and misleading posts about Venerable Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero appear on Sri Lankan social media with regularity, alongside some of the controversial statements made by the Thero. One such post has resurfaced repeatedly since 2016: a photograph of a man in civilian clothes, accompanied by claims that it shows […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel A video claiming to be a “banned programme from 2009” has been circulating on Sri Lankan social media, featuring a woman introduced as a doctor alleging that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been secretly developing sterilizing vaccines since 1974, with the goal of reducing the global population by 90%. […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel A recurring pattern on Sri Lankan social media involves genuine footage from other countries being stripped of all contexts and reposted as recent local incidents. The goal is simple: provoke outrage. A video showing two young men violently assaulting a third, his hands bound to a tree, has been circulating […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel Amid Sri Lanka’s slow recovery from its worst economic crisis in decades, a post styled as a ‘Dinamina’ newspaper article began circulating on social media, claiming the World Bank had ranked the country the world’s second poorest. The claim was politically loaded: some versions blamed the current government, while others […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel Politicians are among the most frequent targets of misinformation on social media. A video circulated widely on social media, implying that Minister Patali Champika had caused a road accident on Vesak Poya Day, 30th May 2026. Given the ongoing High Court proceedings related to a 2016 accident involving Patali Champika, […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel As public trust in Sri Lanka’s financial institutions had eroded under a growing wave of fraud allegations, a three-year-old news report about unrecorded tax revenue resurfaced on social media, and many assumed it was happening right now. A screenshot of a Mawbima newspaper article claiming that thirty-six crores out of […]
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Subscribe to our WhatsApp Channel Photographs of a passport stamp featuring an animal resembling a tiger, have been circulating on social media, with posts claiming it is a new stamp introduced by Sri Lanka’s Department of Immigration and Emigration, and that the animal depicted represents the LTTE terrorist organisation’s emblem. We investigated the claim. Social […]
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