Facebook Inc., which came under fire from the Sri Lankan government earlier this year for allowing dissemination of hate speech, has now added the Sinhalese language to its Artificial Intelligence and machine leaning-based translation capabilities. 

In addition to Sinhala, 23 languages - including Serbian, Belarusian, Marathi, Telugu, Nepali, Kannada, Gujarati, Panjabi, Urdu and Malayalam - have also been added to the same system . 

The move will enable Facebook to monitor Sinhala language content published on its platform - at least to some degree-  allowing it to track hate speech and content promoting violence.

"Translation systems for many of these languages are at an early stage, and the translations they produce are still a long way from professional quality. Nonetheless, the systems produce useful translations that convey the gist of the original meaning, and they give us a way to improve quality iteratively," Facebook announced. 

The Sri Lankan government, earlier this year, instructed Facebook to come up with a mechanism to moderate Sinhala language content shared on the platform due to concerns over hate speech. 

When anti-Muslim violence broke out in some parts of the country in March, this year, the government imposed a blanket ban on Facebook and online messaging apps, on a temporary basis. 

President Maithripala Sirisena in a public speech said the ban on Facebook and messaging apps made it easier for the government to quell the situation.