Sri Lankan here.

Historically, the people here have engaged in "knee-jerk" violence following an initial inflammatory incident; see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_July

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_anti-Muslim_riots_in_Sri_...

In the second incident listed above, social media was used both as a vector to spread hate speech and misinformation, and also to help mobs organize.

Regarding the current social media block: at the start, I felt this to be reasonable, as it made sense to slow the spread of misinformation/hate speech for a couple of days, until people's emotions cool down. However, the blocks still continue - and I see no clear justification for continuing them for so long.