Social media shut down in Sri Lanka

Social media such as Facebook, and messaging services such as WhatsApp and Viber were blocked in Sri Lanka, following incidents of communal violence in the city of Kandy,  where the government imposed a State of Emergency (SoE). The government claims that a considerable amount of misinformation and racial hate speech had been spread using social media platforms to incite people, and the blockaging was intended to prevent the spread of rumors and incendiary posts and comments that may trigger further violence. Meanwhile various organisations have called on the government to call off the online blockage as it was affecting the common citizen adversely.