In the face of severe criticism against Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella's statement on registering all social media users in Sri Lanka, the Media Minister issued a new statement saying that Rambukwella's remarks have been portrayed in a "garbled manner" by some parties.

The new statement said the Minister did not refer to the registration of social media users but to the registration of foreign digital operators.

The statement issued by the ministry said their predatory techniques have cost Sri Lanka large sums of money and local industries have been alienated.

Further justifying his position, the Media Minister said this concern has been shared not only by many governments across the world, but also by leading industrialists in the local domain.

However, the Minister's initial statement drew severe criticism across multiple social media platforms. Samagi Jana Balawegaya's Rasika Jayakody questioned whether the government’s intention is to introduce China’s highly regulated social media platforms to Sri Lanka while banning the existing social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In response, ruling party MP Charitha Herath said ruling party national list MP Charitha Herath today said the discussion was based on the fact that there's no any sort of regulation on digital news sites in the country and whether this issue could be addressed in the amendment process of the Press Council Act.