By Akida Leonard Kamugisha and Nabirye Suzan Maria
Sri Lanka has blocked social media as a means of curbing down the prevailing religious tensions.
three weeks after a series of suicide bombings rocked the country.
Nalaka Kaluwewa, Information department director says facecebook (fb) and its mobile messaging platform WhatsApp were blocked due to the circulation of hate messages and another popular messaging app, Viber.
The platforms were blocked to prevent “social unrest via hate messages, violence and false information,” Nalaka Kaluwewa explains.
He added that one of the main reasons behind the ban was to “clamp down on tensions and incidents that have been erupting over the last 48 hours”.
The ban comes about three weeks after the Easter bombings of the catholics during Easter Sunday prayers on Sunday 21st April, 2019 an in incident that claimed over 200 lives.
Christians in Sri Lanka have started attacking Muslims accusing them of terror attacks something that has prompted government to temporarily putwarnings.n social media.
An anonymous source has told this site that Catholics attacked and started throwing stones at one of the mosques in the country and other moslems- owned shops.
During the mass grave of the deceased, in his eulogy, the Catholic Archbishop of Colombo called upon Christians to be calm and not attack Moslems. However, these have kept deaf ears on prior warnings
