After declaring a statewide public emergency and imposing a 36-hour curfew ahead of a scheduled anti-government demonstration over the island nation's greatest economic crisis, the Sri Lankan government removed its ban on social media sites such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
According to an official, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TokTok, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger services were restored after 15 hours.
The services had been fully or partially blocked.
According to the Colombo Page daily, the decision was made to prevent crowds from assembling in Colombo to protest the government's inability to offer assistance to the public who are suffering from shortages of food, basics, gasoline, and medication as a result of hours-long power outages.
Multiple social media services, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber, and YouTube, have been restricted in Sri Lanka, according to NetBlocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and Internet governance.
NetBlocks had previously detected a large drop in connection levels on Dialog's internet provider from March 29, which coincided with the start of the protests.
On Sunday, the island nation readied for nationwide protests against the government's terrible management of the ongoing economic crisis, which has left people without electricity for lengthy periods of time and a lack of basic necessities. Citizens would be prevented from protesting if a curfew was imposed.
Late Friday night, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa signed a special gazette proclamation proclaiming a state of emergency in Sri Lanka, effective April 1.
A 36-hour curfew was also enforced by the government, which went into place from 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. Monday (April 4).
On Saturday, a Sri Lankan dad claimed that his son, a social media activist, had been kidnapped by the police.
Anurudda Bandara's father said that someone from the Modera police station in north Colombo abducted the child.