Sri Lanka is only the latest Asian country to ban social media

Sri Lanka is the latest Asian country to block social media.

Bushwacked by a critical economic crisis that has also spawned civil and political unrest, the island nation, on April 3, banned the use of social media and messaging platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp. This was in anticipation of mass protests against the government’s failure to halt the economic slide.

The shutdown makes Sri Lanka the 11th Asian country, since 2015, to have banned social media to counter public protests, research by UK-based privacy and VPN service company Surfshark shows. Overall, 30 countries in Asia alone have used social media bans to various ends.

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