Sri Lanka joins the list of Asian countries to ban social media to quell protests

Sri Lanka is currently dealing with widespread protests due to the ongoing economic crisis in the country. The government has declared a state of emergency, along with curfews, to deal with the protests. Additionally, social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, Viber, among others, were also blocked to help quell the protests.

According to internet monitoring organisation Netblocks, social media platforms and communication apps like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, among others, were restricted in Sri Lanka on April 3.

The restrictions in Sri Lanka came into effect across multiple internet/ mobile service providers from April 3 midnight, and services were restored after 16 hours. According to reports, all of Sri Lanka's major network operators, including Dialog, Sri Lanka Telecom, Mobitel, and Hutch, were covered by the measure.

While Sri Lanka is no stranger to restricting social media during times of unrest, this was the first time that social platforms were completely blocked. According to a research conducted by cybersecurity company Surfshark, Sri Lanka’s move to ban social media made it the 11th Asian country to block social media amid protests in the last 7 years.

The study revealed that internet shutdown and social media restrictions is "common" in some Asian countries, particularly during political events like elections, demonstrations, protests, among others. At least 24 Asian countries have blocked social media since 2015, and 11 have banned social media to counter protests, as per the study. Six Asian countries have also permanently blocked popular social media or VoIP (Voice-over-Internet protocol) apps., it added.

The list of social media platforms and apps that Sri Lanka had blocked was similar to the ones that other countries in Asia had blocked in the past. Usually, in situations like these, governments go after communication apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Skype, Viber, among others, and social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

According to Surfshark’s research, social media shutdowns or complete internet shutdowns were recorded 19 times in 17 countries, with five of them happening in Asia (Armenia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and twice in Iran). The majority of the social media shutdowns in 2021 happened during protests (37 per cent) or elections (21 per cent). Internet disruptions in 2021 affected 250 million people globally, according to the study.

The data for this study was collected through open-source information from Freedom House, Netblocks, and reputable news reports from 2015 to the present day.

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