Government shutting down social media during a major crisis is always counter-productive. Doing a social media blackout is the worst decision to make.

Suddenly, the everyday social media users who are online only to get their memes, read artists gossips, buy product from their favourite influencers, get exposed to the crisis.

Social media is a pressure valve, people use it for distraction, venting, and processing. When you remove it, the anger and frustration spills into the streets.

The ruling government can try to take control of the narrative by flooding social media with counterpoints, or bringing up trivial issues to divert the people attention. But this needs to be done skilfully, as they will have to go against the algorithm.

When social media algorithm prioritise outrage and sensationalism to gain virality, any content that tries to calm the narrative will struggle to gain traction.

Worse still, when these algorithms that power your social media feeds are actively being manipulated, by certain people (perhaps a foreign government),.. who have access to manipulate it,.. who have a lot to gain from the destabilisation of the government that they are not in favour of.

I can’t expect everyone to leave the comfort of the familiar social media that they are all currently on. I cannot tell everyone to just start sending Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.

But one advice that someone wiser once give me is this, when you see something starts to pop up online and everywhere, always ask yourself, “why am I seeing this now?”