Kentik Network Analysis Center

Sri Lanka blocks social media during anti-government protests

April 4, 2022
Over the weekend, the government of Sri Lanka ordered ISPs to block Facebook and Twitter in response to anti-government protests .

According to Kentik aggregate NetFlow, traffic from Facebook (pictured) dropped away around 17:30 UTC (11pm local) and remained down for the next 15 hours. Consequently, there was also a surge of traffic from other content providers the following day as Sri Lankans used VPNs and alternative communication tools. This surge in traffic was also evident in the Radar Internet monitoring tool from Cloudflare.


Doug Madory

Doug Madory is the director of internet analysis for Kentik where he works on internet infrastructure analysis. The Washington Post dubbed him “The Man who can see the Internet” for his reputation in identifying significant developments in the global layout of the internet. Doug is regularly quoted by major news outlets about developments ranging from national blackouts to BGP hijacks to the activation of submarine cables. Prior to Kentik, he was the lead analyst for Oracle’s internet intelligence team (formerly Dyn Research and Renesys).

Twitter: @DougMadory

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