Thread: Was it a good move to block Social Media in Sri Lanka?

After the horrific bomb explosions on Easter Sunday, the Sri Lankan government blocked all the social networking sites, in order to avoid the spreading of unverified news. Do you think it's a good move? How it's affecting our Sri Lankan people?

Originally Posted by adhithvarma

In my personal opinion, I don't think blocking social networking sites was a good idea.

I understand that the government did that in an effort to control the spread of unverified/false news. But they should take into consideration the following:

1. Social Media facilitates communication between people, by blocking social networking sites, you are effectively hindering people from communicating with one another during a period of emergency.

2. The government can't resort to the same tactic of blocking social media every time a situation arises. People have found work arounds and they continue to use these platforms

3. They need a long term solution. The government, instead of blocking social media, can introduce a fast response verified news disseminating platform, similar to "Watchdog Sri Lanka". The sole purpose of this application is to provide verified information to the people. If an application, with the back-up of the government can be introduced, people will not resort to news spreading on social media because they have a verified news platform that provides information immediately.

Hello Adhithvarma,

I totally agree with your points, As you said our government should find a long term solution rather than blocking social media every now and then which gives so many inconvenience to the people, I never heard about "Watchdog Sri Lanka" app before, Thanks for sharing about it here. These kinds of platforms are much needed to our country.So that we will not fooled by unverified news.