Around two dozen social media platforms have been affected, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram.
Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has imposed a nationwide social media lockdown after midnight on Sunday April 3, according to an internet observatory.
About two dozen social media platforms were affected, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram. “Confirmed: Real-time network data shows that Sri Lanka has imposed a nationwide social media blackout restricting access to platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram as an emergency is declared in amid widespread protests,” NetBlocks tweeted.
Ahead of the protest scheduled for Sunday, the island nation had imposed a 36-hour curfew from Saturday to Monday as the country faced a severe electricity crisis and rising inflation. The island nation of 22 million is struggling to cope with power outages of up to 13 hours a day as the government scrambles to obtain foreign currency to pay for fuel imports.
A London-based human rights watchdog warned the Sri Lankan government on Saturday that the declaration of a state of emergency in the island nation in the name of public safety should not be used as a pretext for human rights violations.
“Sri Lanka: The declaration of a state of emergency in the name of public security must not be used as a pretext for further human rights violations. The order declaring a state of emergency also seeks to restrict the rights to freedom of assembly, assembly and movement as a safeguard against due process,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
economic crisis by the government could see the state of emergency stifle dissent by stoking fear and facilitating arbitrary arrests and detentions,” the statement added. On Friday, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued the Extraordinary Gazette declaring a state of public emergency in Sri Lanka with immediate effect Rajapaksa said the state of emergency had been declared in the interest of public safety, protection public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to community life.
