The algorithm of discontent: Clickbait democracy and cultivation of the Sri Lankan voter

By Gobinath Ponnuthurai

Abstract 

This paper examines the radical transformation of the Sri Lankan voter’s mindset from 2015 to 2024, specifically focusing on the erosion of ideological political anchors in favour of “action-oriented” viralism. By analyzing the electoral cycles of 2015, 2019, and 2024, the study illustrates how social media—driven by clickbait and rage-bait — has shortened the electorate’s attention span and fundamentally altered democratic engagement. Drawing on Cultivation Theory and the Multiple Exposure Effect, the research argues that Sri Lankan voters are no longer making “informed decisions” based on policy manifestos but are instead being “cultivated” by digital narratives that prioritize instant, performative justice over long-term structural reform. The paper concludes that while the National People Power (NPP)’s 2024 mandate represents a shift toward anti-corruption “action,” the same digital volatility that brought them to power now threatens the stability of their governance as the “rage-loop” pivots toward post-victory disillusionment. 

Executive Summary 

Sri Lanka has entered an era of “High-Velocity Democracy,” in which social media content far outpaces the pace of parliamentary governance. This report identifies a critical shift: a transition from voting based on long-term ideological fundamentals to voting based on immediate, “action-oriented” demands. 

Key Findings: 

• 2015-2019: Transition from organic “Digital Hope” to organized “Security Rage.” 
• 2024: The collapse of traditional party loyalty in favour of “Functional Solutions” (National People’s Power (NPP)). 
• The Stability Paradox: The same digital tools that build supermajorities are now accelerating the “sinking popularity” of incumbents through a permanent rage-loop. 

Chapter 1: The Death of the Long-Form Voter (2015–2019) 

1.1 Introduction: The Digital Pivot of Sri Lankan Democracy 
 

The period between 2015 and 2019 marks a fundamental transformation in the Sri Lankan democratic landscape—a shift from the “slow” politics of traditional media to the “high-velocity” politics of the algorithm. For decades, political consciousness in Sri Lanka was shaped by the “Big Three”: state-controlled television, private print media, and the physical political rally. However, the 2015 Presidential Election acted as a digital “Big Bang,” introducing an era where the voter’s mindset is no longer a product of long-form deliberation but of short-form emotional triggers. 

1.2 The 2015 “Democratic Dawn” and the Facebook Surge 
 

In 2015, social media was perceived as a tool of liberation. Internet penetration was rising rapidly, and for the first time, a decentralized network of activists and unaffiliated youth bypassed the state’s media monopoly to topple a seemingly invincible incumbent. 

• The Narrative of Hope: The Yahapalana (Good Governance) movement was essentially a digital brand. It promised systemic reform, judicial independence, and the end of corruption. 
• The Emotional Appeal: Research into the 2015 campaign shows that both candidates moved away from dry policy debates toward “emotional and motivational appeals.” For the “Long-Form Voter,” 2015 was the last election where a manifesto (the Maithri Paalanayak) still held significant weight. Yet, even then, the “Clickbait” effect was beginning; voters were increasingly influenced by viral rumours regarding elite excess—symbols like “Lambo” cars and “Golden Horses”—which acted as powerful, if sometimes unverified, visual shorthand for corruption. 

1.3 The Disillusionment Loop (2015–2018) 

The tragedy of the 2015 victory was its inability to keep pace with digital expectations. The Yahapalana government operated on the “slow” timelines of parliamentary democracy and legal due process. 

The Theory of “Action-Oriented” Voting: In a digital world, voters begin to equate “Democratic Process” with “Inefficiency.” When the promised “Action” (specifically the prosecution of the old guard) did not appear in their newsfeeds within months, the digital crowd—fueled by a shortening attention span—began to turn. 

By the 2018 Local Government elections, the “Short-Attention” voter was already looking for a new “Hero” who promised results over reform. This disillusionment created a fertile ground for the Cultivation of Discontent. 

1.4 2019: The Security Narrative and the WhatsApp War 

If 2015 was the year of “Hope,” 2019 was the year of “Rage and Fear.” The Easter Sunday attacks of 2019 constituted a catastrophic “Black Swan” event that was rapidly weaponized by social media algorithms. 

The “Security-Industrial” Content Machine 

The 2019 Presidential Election saw the most sophisticated use of Information Operations in the nation’s history. Unlike 2015, which was organic, 2019 was organized. 

• Targeting the Older Generation (WhatsApp): While younger voters were on Facebook and YouTube, the 50+ demographic (the “WhatsApp Generation”) became the primary target for shadow campaigns. 
• The “Forwarded as Received” Menace: False narratives regarding “sterilization plots” and “national security leaks” were shared in trusted, closed family groups. This created a Multiple Exposure Effect; because the information came from a trusted relative rather than a news anchor, it bypassed the voter’s critical filters. 

The Cultivation of “Mean System Syndrome” 

Applying Cultivation Theory, we see that by 2019, the average Sri Lankan voter was being “cultivated” to view the world through a lens of existential threat. Constant exposure to security-related “Rage-bait” convinced the electorate that a “Strongman” (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) was the only logical choice. This was a move away from Ideological Fundamentals (Left/Right) toward a Functional Necessity (Security/Order). 

1.5 Summary: The Evolution of Voter Vulnerability 

The period ended with a voter who was more connected than ever, yet less informed. The 2019 election result—a decisive 52.25% mandate for the SLPP—was a triumph of the Viral Narrative over the Informed Decision.  

Chapter 2: The “Action-First” Electorate & The Aragalaya Echo (2022–2024) 

2.1 The Aragalaya as a Content Engine and Identity Shift 

The 2022 Aragalaya (The Struggle) was not merely a protest; it was the ultimate disruption of the Sri Lankan political “marketing” model. For decades, the Rajapaksas had cultivated a narrative of “indispensable protectors.” The economic collapse—evidenced by 13-hour power cuts and fuel lines—shattered this digital invincibility in real-time. 

• The Demise of Ethno-Nationalism: Social media trends during the Aragalaya achieved what decades of civil society work could not: they temporarily replaced ethnic polarization with a “People vs. Elite” binary. The viral hashtag #GotaGoHome functioned as a unifying digital brand that cut across Gen-Z, Millennials, and even the “WhatsApp-driven” older generations who felt the physical sting of the crisis. 
• The Performative Turn: Protesters live-streaming from the Presidential Secretariat and swimming in the official pool created a new “Action-Oriented” benchmark. The voter mindset shifted from “Who do I believe in?” to “What can I see happening right now?” This created a “Direct Democracy” expectation—where the voter believes they can (and should) topple a government via viral pressure if results are not immediate. 

2.2 The 2024 Mandate: The NPP’s “Viral Meritocracy” 

The rise of the National People’s Power (NPP) from a 3.16% vote share in 2019 to Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s victory with 42.31% (first preference) and 55.89% (final count) is a masterclass in digital brand repositioning. 

• Action over Ideology: The NPP strategically sidelined its Marxist-Leninist JVP roots. Instead of talking about the “Means of Production,” their social media machine focused on “The Recovery of Stolen Assets.” This was a pivot toward Action-Oriented Populism. The 2024 voter didn’t vote for a left-wing ideology; they voted for a “Clean Up Crew.” 
• The Reel Strategy: Gen-Z and first-time voters (over 1 million strong) were mobilized through “Rationality Reels.” Short, edited clips of Anura Kumara Dissanayake or Harini Amarasuriya using data and “common sense” logic went viral, contrasting sharply with the “Ragebait” and “Old World” rhetoric of traditional parties like the United National Party (UNP) or Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). 
• The Parliamentary Supermajority: The November 2024 General Election, where the NPP secured a record 159 seats, confirmed the total collapse of the “Ideological Anchor.” Voters in the North and East, traditionally loyal to ethnic parties, also pivoted toward the NPP’s “Corruption vs. Anti-Corruption” axis, showing that the “Action” of economic relief had transcended the “Ideology” of ethnic nationalism. 

2.3 The “Sinking Popularity” Paradox: Digital Decay in 2025 

However, the same digital tools that built the NPP’s supermajority are now being used to dismantle its popularity. By late 2024 and into 2025, a new trend of “Post-Victory Rage” has emerged. 

• The IMF vs. The Algorithm: While the NPP government follows structural IMF reforms (including tax hikes and utility price adjustments), the “Short-Attention-Span” voter—cultivated by two years of Aragalaya rage—is losing patience. On platforms like TikTok and Facebook, the narrative is shifting from “They are the cleaners” to “They are the same as the old guard.” 
• The Flashpoints of Discontent:  

1. Utility Price Rage: High-energy pricing has become a “Rage-bait” staple. Short videos comparing current bills to campaign promises are circulating rapidly, creating a sense of betrayal. 

2. The “Slow” Justice System: The voter mindset, primed for “Action,” views the legal “due process” of anti-corruption as “Inaction.” Digital influencers are now profiting from “Disillusionment Content,” further sinking the government’s popularity on the ground despite its massive parliamentary mandate. 

2.4 The Crisis of Traditional Political Parties 

The UNP, SLFP, and SLPP are currently in an “Existential Vacuum.” Because they are still trying to communicate through traditional hierarchies and “Long-Form” political structures, they have become invisible to voters living in a 15-second loop. 

In the 2024 landscape, “Ideological Fundamentals” are no longer viable. A party that cannot translate its policy into a viral “Action” is a party that no longer exists in the voter’s cognitive map. 

Chapter 3: The Cultivated State—Multiple Exposure and the Future of Democracy 

3.1 Theoretical Framework: Applying Cultivation Theory to a Digital State 

Traditionally, Cultivation Theory, developed by George Gerbner, suggested that heavy television viewers began to perceive the real world as more dangerous or “mean” than it actually was because of the consistent imagery they consumed—a phenomenon known as “Mean World Syndrome.” 

In the Sri Lankan context (2015–2024), we have transitioned from a “Mean World” to a “Mean System Syndrome.” 

• The Narrative of Persistent Failure: For a decade, the Sri Lankan digital landscape has been saturated with “Corruption Porn”—short, high-arousal clips of elite excess, luxury cars, and parliamentary brawls. 
• The Psychological Result: Even when a new government like the NPP takes power with a mandate for “System Change,” the voter’s mind has been cultivated over ten years to believe that the system is inherently and irredeemably broken. This creates a permanent state of cynicism where any policy failure is viewed not as a mistake, but as a “betrayal.” 

3.2 The Multiple Exposure Effect: How Repetition Replaces Truth 

The volatility of the 2024–2025 voter is driven by the Multiple Exposure Effect (or the Illusory Truth Effect). This psychological quirk ensures that the more a claim is repeated, the more likely a person is to believe it, regardless of its factual basis. 

• Cross-Platform Saturation: In Sri Lanka, a single “Rage-bait” narrative—for example, a claim about hidden IMF conditions or secret deals regarding national land—often starts as a TikTok “leak,” moves to a WhatsApp “forwarded” message for the older generation, and is eventually validated by a YouTube “political influencer.” 
• The Verification Gap: Because the voter experiences this “multiple exposure” across three different digital touchpoints, the brain stops looking for evidence. Repetition becomes a proxy for truth. This explains how the NPP can hold a record-breaking parliamentary majority while simultaneously facing “sinking popularity” on the ground; the digital narrative has already moved on to the next cycle of discontent before the government has even implemented its first budget. 

3.3 The Decline of Informed Decision-Making 

Democracy relies on the “Informed Voter”—an individual who weighs policy, budget, and long-term consequences. However, the “Short-Attention-Span” digital world has replaced the Informed Decision with the Cultivated Narrative. 

• From Principles to Performance: We are witnessing the death of the “Ideological Anchor.” Voters in 2024 did not vote for a return to 1970s socialism; they voted for the “Action” of a clean-up. When that action hits the friction of real-world governance (legal due process, IMF constraints, global economic shifts), the voter feels a sense of “Information Dissonance.” 
• The Rage-Loop: Social media algorithms do not reward stability; they reward conflict. Therefore, once the “victory high” of 2024 faded, the algorithm naturally began to promote “Rage-bait” against the new establishment to maintain user engagement. This creates a trap for any ruling party: to stay “popular” online, they must remain in a state of constant, performative agitation, which is often the opposite of sound governance. 

3.4: Geopolitical Cultivation—The Digital Front of the Indo-China Rivalry 

In the “Short-Attention-Span” world of Sri Lankan politics, regional geopolitics has moved from high-level diplomatic cables to high-velocity TikTok trends. The voter mindset is no longer just being cultivated by domestic actors, but by a sophisticated “Geopolitical Narrative Machine” that uses Sri Lanka as a proxy battlefield for the regional rivalry between India and China. 

The “Debt-Trap” vs. “Security-Threat” Narratives 

The digital voter is constantly exposed to two competing geopolitical “Rage-bait” tropes that shift based on who is in power: 

• The China-Bias Cultivation: During the 2015–2019 and 2024 cycles, social media narratives frequently framed infrastructure projects (like the Colombo Port City or Hambantota) as a “sovereignty sell-out.” The Multiple Exposure Effect was used to reinforce the “Debt-Trap Diplomacy” narrative, leading the average voter to believe that Chinese investments were synonymous with national bankruptcy. 
• The India-Expansionist Cultivation: Conversely, opposition digital machines often weaponize “India-phobia.” Narrative cultivation focuses on the Adani group’s investments, the ETCA agreement, or “cultural encroachment.” In 2024, the NPP’s pragmatic shift toward New Delhi (highlighted by AKD’s official visit to India) was instantly met with “Ragebait” content from detractors, framing the visit as a betrayal of the party’s anti-hegemonic roots. 

“Wolf Warrior” Diplomacy and the WhatsApp Echo 

Sri Lanka has become a laboratory for “Wolf Warrior” Diplomacy, where foreign embassies engage directly and often combatively with local social media users. 

• Active Presence: The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka has pioneered a confrontational digital style, using platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to bypass traditional media and speak directly to the “Action-Oriented” voter. 
• The Disinformation Spillover: Studies indicate that geopolitical misinformation—such as AI-generated videos of foreign leaders purportedly endorsing Sri Lankan candidates—is increasingly common. For instance, the 2024 election saw “shallowfake” videos of world leaders used to legitimize or delegitimize specific coalitions. When these videos reach the WhatsApp Generation, the geopolitical bias becomes “cultivated” as a nationalistic fact, regardless of its authenticity.  

Impact on Voting Fundamentals 

The primary danger of this “Geopolitical Cultivation” is that it forces the voter to choose based on external alignment rather than internal policy. 

1. Polarization: Voters are cultivated to view foreign policy as a zero-sum game (e.g., “If you support this project, you are a Chinese puppet” or “If you sign this deal, you are an Indian agent”). 
2. Sovereignty as a Buzzword: The concept of sovereignty has been “meme-ified.” It is no longer a complex legal status discussed by experts, but a viral “Ragebait” trigger used to topple governments or stall economic reforms (such as IMF conditions). 

Recommendation: Geopolitical Media Literacy 

To protect the “Informed Decision” from foreign manipulation, Sri Lanka must establish a Geopolitical Fact-Checking Unit. This unit should focus specifically on identifying coordinated inauthentic behaviour from foreign state-linked actors. National security in the digital age is no longer merely about guarding borders; it is about safeguarding the Cognitive Sovereignty of the voter from algorithmically amplified foreign narratives. 

3.5 Conclusion & Policy Recommendations: Safeguarding Democracy in a Viral Age 

The Structural Crisis of the “Refreshed” Mandate 

The ten-year trajectory from the 2015 “Digital Dawn” to the 2024 “System Change” mandate reveals a dangerous paradox: while digital tools have democratized the capacity to topple unpopular regimes, they have simultaneously undermined the stability required for governance. Sri Lanka is currently trapped in a “Volatility Loop.” The voter’s mindset, cultivated by a decade of ragebait and the demand for instant results, now views the deliberate, slow-moving nature of democratic due process as a form of corruption in itself. 

If the NPP government—or any future administration—fails to reconcile the “High-Velocity Expectation” of the internet with the “Low-Velocity Reality” of economic and legal reform, the country risks a permanent cycle of instability. To break this cycle, the following policy interventions are recommended: 

1. Legislative Reform: Refining the Online Safety Framework 

While the Online Safety Act (OSA) was introduced to curb disinformation, it has been criticized for being a tool of suppression rather than protection. 

• Reform the Online Safety Commission: Transition the Commission into an independent, multi-stakeholder body including civil society members, tech experts, and journalists. The goal should shift from “criminalizing speech” to “penalizing coordinated inauthentic behaviour” (troll farms and bot networks). 
• Localized Content Moderation: The Sri Lankan government must negotiate with Meta, TikTok, and Google to increase the number of native Sinhala and Tamil-speaking moderators. Currently, the “Multiple Exposure Effect” persists because nuances in local ethnic tensions or political slang often evade automated AI filters. 

2. Education: Nationalizing “Cognitive Defense” 

The long-term solution to “Short Attention Span” voting is not regulation, but resilience. 

• Mandatory Media & Information Literacy (MIL): The Ministry of Education should integrate MIL into the national school curriculum. Students must be taught to identify “Ragebait” triggers, verify “Forwarded as Received” WhatsApp messages, and understand the “Algorithm Bias” that traps them in echo chambers. 
• The “Silver Surfer” Program: Targeted digital literacy campaigns for the 50+ demographic. This “WhatsApp Generation” is often the most vulnerable to disinformation; community-based training via local Pradeshiya Sabhas can help older voters recognize “Cultivated Narratives.” 

3. Civil Society: Rebuilding the “Ideological Anchor” 

Think tanks and NGOs must play a role in slowing down the political discourse. 

• Fact-Checking as a Public Good: Support and fund independent fact-checking organizations (e.g., FactCheck.lk) to move beyond simple “True/False” ratings toward “Narrative Analysis.” They should explain how a specific ragebait trend was manufactured. 
• Deliberative Polling: Encourage “Town Hall”- style digital forums in which voters are presented with long-form expert data before being polled. This counters the “Multiple Exposure Effect” by forcing the brain to engage with contradictory facts rather than repeated lies. 

The 2024 election was a victory for “System Change,” but the real challenge lies in whether the system can survive the very digital tools that changed it. For Sri Lanka to remain a stable democracy, it must move beyond being an “Audience for Outrage” and become an “Electorate of Agency.” Without these structural and educational shifts, the “Refreshed” mandate of today will simply become the “Clickbait Crisis” of tomorrow. 

(The writer is a political strategist and legislative advisor specializing in democratic integrity and international relations. Currently a Senior Advisor in the Canadian House of Commons, he provides high-level counsel on federal legislative strategy. Formerly a Political Officer for the High Commission of Canada in Sri Lanka, Gobinath managed complex South Asian portfolios, gaining deep expertise in Indo-Pacific geopolitics and executive overreach. His current research explores modern governance, specifically the impact of digital media influence and algorithmic populism on electoral behaviour. A specialist in democratic institutional design, he advocates for systemic resets and participatory assemblies to strengthen global democratic resilience)

Source: Factum Perspectives

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication.