Colombo, April 3 : The Sri Lankan government has imposed nationwide social media blackout after midnight on Sunday restricting access to social networking sites to prevent the mass-gathering for protest against the government for economic crisis. The move came following the announcement of a state of emergency and 36-hour curfew across the island as demonstrations against the government continued due to its failure to provide relief to public suffering from the shortages of basic amenities. The citizens have been protesting against hour-long power cuts, shortage in food, medicine, essentials, fuel among others. NetBlocks, a watchdog organisation monitoring cybersecurity and the governance of the internet, confirmed the restriction of multiple social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber and YouTube in Sri Lanka after midnight on Sunday, ColomboPage, a Sri Lankan newsportal, reported. The watchdog reported that real-time network data collected from over 100 vantage points across Sri Lanka confirm that the restrictions came into effect across multiple providers from midnight. Metrics corroborate user reported of service unavailability across the country, showing that all of Sri Lanka’s major network operators including Dialog, Sri Lanka Telecom, Mobitel, Hutch have been covered by the measure. VP RNJ