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Meta Is Making Its Apps Safer for American Teens. What About Sri Lanka?

Meta Is Making Its Apps Safer for American Teens. What About Sri Lanka?

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA — Opening a phone for a quick look at Instagram and surfacing forty minutes later is such a common failure of self-discipline that most people have stopped calling it one. American authorities spent years arguing it was never a failure of discipline at all. In a case brought by 47 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories, they accused Meta of building features whose purpose was to keep young users watching, scrolling and coming back. On Wedn
Cover Story August 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
The Easter Bombings: Anatomy of a State Failure

The Easter Bombings: Anatomy of a State Failure

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam At 8:27 on the morning of April 21, 2019, a foreign intelligence service sent one last message to the head of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service. The bombers would probably move between six and ten that morning, it said, and one of their targets was a Methodist church in Colombo. Surveillance teams were being deployed. The police, it added, had already been warned. The first explosions came shortly before nine, less than twenty minutes later. Over the course of th
Cover Story JM COURTS
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
Tamil Families Displaced Since 1990 Vow Weekly Protests Until Military-Held Lands Are Returned
A banner at the protest site read: “Even after 36 years, must our lives still remain those of refugees?”

Tamil Families Displaced Since 1990 Vow Weekly Protests Until Military-Held Lands Are Returned

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Holding faded land deeds — some preserved for more than three decades as the last legal proof of ownership — displaced Tamil residents of Valikamam North gathered Friday outside the gates of the military’s Commando bungalow in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna Peninsula, demanding the return of ancestral lands they have been barred from entering since their forced displacement in June 1990. The demonstration, organized by landowners and their families, marked the start of what participants
April 2026 Cover Story
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
One Thousand Years of Belonging – One Mad Command of Exile: The Story of Jaffna’s Muslims

One Thousand Years of Belonging – One Mad Command of Exile: The Story of Jaffna’s Muslims

Part-1 I was only a few years old when the LTTE committed one of its most heinous crimes — the mass expulsion of Jaffna’s Muslims. Three decades later, I found myself sitting in Sonagar Theru (Moor Street), Jaffna, with a group of Muslim women who still carry the scars of that history. Their bodies and souls bear the weight of one of the greatest tragedies and injustices ever committed in the name of the Sri Lankan Tamil struggle. Among them was 68-year-old Mahroopa — fragile, elderly, yet
Cover Story December 2025
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
No Minority Politician Can Solve Ethnic Issues Without the Trust of the Majority: Faiszer Musthapha
Faiszer Musthapha

No Minority Politician Can Solve Ethnic Issues Without the Trust of the Majority: Faiszer Musthapha

At Jaffna Monitor, we believe that meaningful conversations about ethnic representation, national unity, and pluralistic governance are essential for Sri Lanka’s democratic future. For decades, ethnic politics has shaped — and often fractured — the country’s political landscape and the fate of its people. Yet critical questions remain unanswered: What is the most effective path for minority communities to secure their rights and interests? Should minority leaders work within majority-led nationa
October 2025 Cover Story
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Two Centuries, Zero Extremists: How Bohras Became Sri Lanka's Model Muslims

Two Centuries, Zero Extremists: How Bohras Became Sri Lanka's Model Muslims

The usually bustling streets of Colombo took on a distinctly vibrant hue late last month, as over 10,000 members of the Dawoodi Bohra community from around the world descended on the city for a week-long spiritual convention. Held from June 27 to July 5, the gathering coincided with the global Ashara Mubaraka sermons led by the community’s spiritual leader, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, in Chennai, India. The Colombo leg of the event, held primarily at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centr
Cover Story Editorial
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
Trump's Tariff Cut: From 44% to 30% – Will This Crisis Break Us—or Remake Us?

Trump's Tariff Cut: From 44% to 30% – Will This Crisis Break Us—or Remake Us?

Sri Lankans awoke this week to a curious cocktail of relief and dread. On July 9, 2025, in a characteristically dramatic turn, U.S. President Donald Trump declared that the steep 44% tariff slapped on Sri Lankan exports would be trimmed to 30%. Set to take effect on August 1, the reduction is part of Trump’s aggressive “reciprocal tariff” doctrine—his claim to level the playing field by matching the import taxes that other nations impose on American goods. While 30% is still a heavy blow, it’s
Cover Story July 2025
Economics Desk

Economics Desk
Why Extremism Never Found a Home: The Bohra Approach to Faith and Scripture

Why Extremism Never Found a Home: The Bohra Approach to Faith and Scripture

"Tell me something," said a dear friend of mine—an expert in security studies—as we spoke about the Dawoodi Bohras over coffee one evening. "Have you ever heard of a Bohra being involved in a bomb blast? A shooting? Any terrorist group claiming to defend Islam through violence that had Bohra links?" He paused. "No, right?" "That's not a coincidence," he continued. "It's actually one of the most remarkable things about the Bohras—whether in Sri Lanka, South Asia or anywhere in the diaspora. Whil
Cover Story July 2025
Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran