Thread by @BattlementLK

How USAID is funding and training an online media empire in Sri Lanka. Thread 🧵

1. Roar Media is an online media organization in Sri Lanka with 1.2M visitors to their website and 10.9M social reach

2. According to Roar, some of their investors are IREX and Google news

3. According to IREX, they are funded by the following organizations including USAID, US State Department, Open Society and Ford Foundations, and Millennium Challenge Corporation (supposed counter to BRI in Europe, Asia & Pacific including Sri Lanka)

4. IREX also has a journalistic training program in Sri Lanka called MEND supported by USAID, which Roar, according to their own website received a grant from

5. Roar has published several articles criticizing China's influence in Sri Lanka in the past, including an article where they falsely claim the Hambantota Port lease was a debt/equity swap.

6. Roar's editor in chief Roel Raymond has played a crucial role in Sri Lanka's regime change protests, by using her Twitter presence to support them and to rally people against the leaders.

7. These are some of her many tweets about the protests.

8. Roel Raymond can be seen with the USAID funded IREX team in the image below

9. Almost 2 months after the first riots/protests in Sri Lanka broke out, Roel Raymond was invited to meet the US ambassador