HONG KONG: Social networking site Facebook has said that it has come to know about its role in the in the deadly communal unrest that took place in Sri Lanka in 2018 through an investigation.

In a statement, Facebook said that the team investigating the case has informed the tech giant that hate speech and rumours that were spread on the platform two years ago may have led to anti-Muslim anger and violence.

“We deplore the misuse of our platform,” Facebook said. “We recognize, and apologize for, the very real human rights impacts that resulted.”

According to Sri Lankan daily, at least three people were killed and 20 injured in the 2018 violence. The Sri Lankan government had imposed a state of emergency after mosques and Muslim businesses were burned in the central part of the Sinhalese Buddhist-majority nation. It had also blocked access to Facebook to stop the hatred against Muslims being shared.

“Before the unrest, Facebook had failed to take down violent content, which “resulted in hate speech and other forms of harassment remaining and even spreading” on the platform,” said the report released by the investigators.  “In 2018, mobs used Facebook to coordinate attacks, and it had “only two resource persons” to review content in Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka´s ethnic majority whose members were behind the violence.”