Misinformation targeting Sri Lanka's Muslim community has long circulated on social media, fuelling tensions in the Buddhist-majority nation. In September, users falsely claimed more than 380,000 Muslim babies are born annually while 750,000 mostly Buddhist Sinhalese women supposedly undergo abortions every year. Multiple experts told AFP the figures are inconsistent with the island nation's birth rate and available data on abortions.
"Sinhala people, if you don't have at least three children Muslims will be the nation's majority by 2060," reads part of a Sinhalese language Facebook post shared on September 8, 2026.
"385,000 Muslim births per year. 750,000 Sinhala abortions," the caption states.
Similar claims have also been shared elsewhere on Facebook in Sri Lanka, whose 22 million people are predominantly ethnic Sinhalese, accounting for about 74 percent of the population and are largely Buddhist ( archived link). Tamils make up 12.3 percent of the population, while Muslims account for 10.5 percent.
Advertisement
The country's decades-long conflict, which claimed more than 100,000 lives, ended in May 2009 when government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels seeking an independent state in the island's north and east.
But clashes between Buddhist and Muslim communities in 2018 triggered a nationwide state of emergency, while the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 led to Muslims increasingly becoming targets of hate speech across online platforms (archived here, here and here).
...Panthers chairman Greg Alexander has revealed Nathan Cleary’s injury was not as bad as what was reported after the reigning Dally M Medallist underwent a second surgery. During the Panthers’ preli...