Colombo: Social media has been disabled in Sri Lanka due to the state of emergency and curfew. The Prime Minister’s son has protested. Sri Lanka is facing a severe economic crisis and shortages of essential commodities. The prices of food grains, petrol and diesel have gone up many times over. Forced power outages occur for up to 13 hours daily. Roshan Ranasinghe, Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government, has resigned in protest of the Sri Lankan government.
Hundreds of people stormed the residence of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the capital Colombo at midnight a few days ago. Continuing calls were made through social media to intensify the struggle throughout Sri Lanka. An emergency consultation meeting was held yesterday under the chairmanship of the Chancellor in this regard. A state of emergency was declared across the country from last night. Yesterday from 6 pm to tomorrow (4th) from 6 am
(36 hours) Curfew has been imposed across Sri Lanka.
In a statement, the Sri Lankan government said, ‘People can go out only for basic necessities. The curfew has been imposed to ensure the safety of the people, peace in the country and the provision of essential commodities to the people. However, despite the curfew, the public protested in the capital, Colombo, last night. More than 650 of them were arrested by the police. Troops have been mobilized in major cities, including the capital Colombo, to control civilian movement as tensions continue.
As a result, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Dictoc, Telegram and Instagram were disabled today. According to reports, social media has been disabled as some people are using social networking sites to launch protests against the government. Netflix, Sri Lanka’s cyber security and cyber governance watchdog, said in a statement, ‘Social media has been disabled in Sri Lanka since midnight. These social media restrictions have been imposed due to public unrest.
Namal Rajapaksa, the son of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and a minister, wrote in a statement, ‘I will never accept blocking the use of social media; However, social media can be used via VPN; That’s how I use it now. ‘ Meanwhile, 3 lakh tonnes of rice is to be sent to Sri Lanka on behalf of India to alleviate food shortages. In the first phase, 40,000 tonnes of rice will be sent. The process of sending rice to Sri Lanka by cargo ships from South Indian ports has been initiated. It is noteworthy that 40,000 tons of diesel shipped on behalf of India reached Sri Lanka.