Sri Lanka's Social Media Ban Is Making Facebook Look Like A Victim. It Isn’t

Social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter, are not great levellers as was previously assumed, but powerful amplifiers — the loudest and best-financed voices offline are also the loudest voices online as well.Power play

In 2017, I reported through an internet shutdown spanning several days in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. A farmers’ agitation for better prices had turned violent after the police opened fire on protesters, killing five farmers. As the violence spiralled out of control, the government responded by shutting off the internet.

Indian state governments are amongst the most frequent deployers of internet shutdowns in the world, with 134 network shutdowns in 2018, and over a 100 in 2016-17 according toThe protests that spanned several cities in adjoining states had been coordinated over WhatsApp groups, but these had been set up only after farmer representatives had held several face-to-face meetings in the months preceding the protests.

For the state government and police, shutting down the internet also carried great symbolic heft — it offered them an avenue to telegraph their power to the farmers they were trying to suppress. And despite appearances to the contrary, social media platforms controlled by giant, unaccountable, American companies like Facebook and Twitter are likely to advance the causes of freedom only by accident and not by design.

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Latest updates: Social media services blocked in Sri LankaA group that monitors internet censorship says Sri Lankan authorities have blocked most social media services in the country following attacks that killed more than 200 people on Easter Sunday. I wonder if the police will go to all the Christian churches in Canada and offer them protection in light of the Sri Lankan attacks?
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Sri Lanka blocks social media, messaging apps after deadly attackSri Lankan authorities have blocked most social media services in the country following the Easter Sunday attacks that killed more than 200 people, a group that monitors internet censorship said. What a crappy country So what happens if you’re a tourist and need them to contact family or get out of the country? This is a terrible tragedy, but IMO that would stress me wayyyy out. Why?
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