Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) Thousands of Liberians gathered in the capital Monrovia Friday to protest "corruption and creeping dictatorship" in the country.

Social media sites were later blocked to quell the protests, according to the internet monitoring platform NetBlocks.

WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Google's Gmail service and the website of The Associated Press were among the sites affected, NetBlocks said.

Bai Sama G. Best, managing director of Liberia's Daily Observer newspaper, told CNN most journalists and some citizens are using virtual private networks (VPN) to bypass the restrictions.

Liberia's Minister of Information Eugene Nagbe confirmed that social media platforms were shutdown temporarily because of "security concerns."

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