Sri Lankan authorities have blocked most social media sites after the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels which killed hundreds of people, a dramatic reaction which reflects ac
Matt O’Brien and Stephen Wright
April 22 2019 7:51 AM
Sri Lankan authorities have blocked most social media sites after the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels which killed hundreds of people, a dramatic reaction which reflects accumulated distrust in the capability of American internet companies to control harmful content.
The shutdown of social media including Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instagram services was announced by the government’s official news portal, which cited the spread of «false news reports» online.
The NetBlocks observatory said it detected an intentional blackout of the popular platforms as well as YouTube, Snapchat and Viber. Twitter appeared unaffected.
Officials are likely to have feared that the spread of inflammatory content could provoke more bloodshed in Sri Lanka, a Buddhist-majority island nation that has large Hindu, Muslim and Christian minorities and a long history of ethnic and sectarian conflict. At least 290 people were killed in the bombings.
Ivan Sigal, head of the internet and journalism advocacy organisation Global Voices, said the country’s rapid action was a «telling moment».
«A few years ago we’d be using these platforms to help each other and coordinating assistance. Now we view them as a threat,» he wrote on Twitter.
«If I were Facebook and WhatsApp I’d take a moment to ask myself where I’d gone wrong,» he said. «Cannot think of a clearer signal for lack of platform trust.»
It was not the first time Sri Lanka has blocked social media. The government imposed a week-long ban in March 2018 because of concerns that WhatsApp and other platforms were being used to fan anti-Muslim violence in the country’s central region.
Facebook is increasingly in the crosshairs of regulators, rights groups and the public as it tries to balance what chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has called «giving people a voice» and demands for censorship of hate speech and other harmful content posted on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
