We are at a loss of words following the coordinated series of deadly terror attacks in Sri Lanka that ripped through some churches and hotels, killing and injuring hundreds of people. Well, you know what happens when a nation gets hit with terror attacks? Spread of misinformation, violence, and God knows what else.

Well, it's not happening in this case, as the Sri Lankan officials blocked several social media networks, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Viber, YouTube, and more. It was done over concerns that the attacks would trigger waves of misinformation, violence and hate speech.

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Presidential advisor Harindra Dassanayake told The New York Times that the decision to block access to social media sites was a “unilateral decision”. As of now, it's not entirely clear as to when this ban will be lifted, but it does make a lot of sense since most of the panicking often happens on or after reading dozens of articles spreading fake news on social media platforms.

The move to ban social media, however, isn't unprecedented. Sri Lanka itself issued a temporary ban on social media sites after the riots fueled by Facebook misinformation spread. In fact, we've seen something similar in India too, and networks like Facebook and WhatsApp were blocked in the wake of riots.

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But is the ban really helping? Well, there's no way to tell, but resorting to such measures does make sense since a lot of countries do struggle with viral and violent misinformation spread on social media during such events.