After a weeklong blackout, the Sri Lankan government lifted its nationwide ban on social media on Thursday. Facebook and several other platforms had been shut down after days of violence targeting Muslims in the Kandy district, a popular destination for tourists and pilgrims. The violence began after a Sinhalese Buddhist truck driver was killed in a road-rage incident. Buddhist chauvinist groups flocked to the area, and their visits were followed by looting, arson, and attacks on mosques and on businesses operated by Muslims.

Anti-Muslim propaganda is pervasive in all types of media in Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist population. But some pieces of disinformation — like false accounts of Buddhist monks being attacked — spread on social media and were perceived as especially dangerous. So the Sri Lankan government imposed the ban on Facebook, WhatsApp and several other services as a temporary security measure.

It remained in effect until Facebook officials traveled to Sri Lanka to make a personal plea to lift it. The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, agreed to end the ban, saying Facebook pledged to work with the government “to prevent hate speech and misuse of the platform.” Critics immediately pointed out that the company has not offered any specific measures to “fix Facebook”.

The government is claiming a victory, but blanket social media bans are not a solution to the problem of hate speech. They set a bad precedent for freedom of expression and undermine efforts to spread messages of reconciliation.