Internet shutdown activities has been very common and frequent in Asia, recently  in Sri Lanka there was a week long internet shutdown ordered by President Maithripala Sirisena’s administration, affected to stop the violence happening against the hate speech that started in social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Web-based calling service Viber. With the intention of curbing violence, the internet services were shut down on March 7 and were restored on March 14 and 15. The government reasoned it to  clamp down on mob violence but the government action had several unintended consequences that prolonged rest of the public who suffered the consequences of the internet shutdown.

According to the the government, ” The main intention of the shutdown was to cut off communications between organizers of violent mobs. The government accused the various social media platform for  amplifying hate speech and allowing groups to coordinate attacks against Muslim residents, who make up about 10 percent of the island nation’s population. Rising tensions between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and minority Muslims in recent weeks have led to riots in the district of Kandy, with at least two deaths and major property damage.”

NetBlocks, stated that  the shutdown in Sri Lanka was a loss  USD $30 million during the shutdown from 7-15 March 2018.

The argument that has been raised by the shutdown are:
1. Blaming the social media for the cause of riots and violence is wrong
2. Internet is not only used by the violator, so shutting it down for the overall public is a question of breaching human right of the rest of the public
3. Governments needs to understand and raise issues of cultural diversity and harmony
4. Human Rights values and rights of individual needs to be recognized and enacted