Opposition MP Harin Fernando raised a question of privilege in Parliament, questioning the publication of "false statistics" on the Google Balloon Project on the official Twitter account of Parliament. The former Digital Minister said the publication in question was damaging to his reputation.

“Who is responsible for this? False news cannot be made using the official logo of Parliament. As discussed in the COPE, some media are using this to sling mud at me for personal reasons ” said MP Harin Fernando.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa said that the Secretary-General of Parliament and the Speaker should look into this matter. He also stated that an investigation should be carried out against those responsible.

COPE Chairman Charitha Herath said that the media unit of the parliament was reporting what was happening in the COPE committee on its Twitter account.

Responding to the questions, Minister Johnston Fernando said the Twitter account and the media unit was created according to the whims of former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya. "That's why we said from the beginning that this information should not be given to the media," he added.

The Speaker informed the House that the Parliamentary Twitter account is maintained by the Media Unit and that those who are responsible for the incident will be investigated.