South-based feminist visions for digital media policy in Sri Lanka

Abstract

There is a clear need for digital media policies in Sri Lanka to address violence and promote free expression, in the context of the espoused vision of a digital Sri Lanka. There is also a need to critically analyse the colonial and neo-colonial hegemonies that are inherent in the modern nation state, civil society and corporations, and how those are perpetuated through the policies they create and implement. This article proposes grounding media studies in our communities and centres the experiences of Melony, a cisgender crossdressing gay sex worker, who finds himself belonging/nonbelonging in the state’s vision for a digital Sri Lanka and the accompanying neocolonizing ideologies of social media platform companies.