How Sri Lanka Shut Social Media Out of the Country

And why such censorship efforts usually backfire

Photo: Himanshu Bhatt/NurPhoto/Getty

Not long ago, social media giants like Twitter and Facebook were soaking up praise for playing an essential role in supporting democratic revolutions in the Middle East. But less than a decade later, these same platforms are now widely derided as hotbeds of hate speech and disinformation, so much…