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The largest political party in Sri Lanka on Saturday urged Facebook to protect the identity of its supporters, fearing repression by the "illegal" government.
The Indian Ocean nation has been in crisis since last month with two men claiming to be prime minister, deputies fighting in Parliament and paralyzed administration.
It began on October 26 when President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse.
In the chaotic scenes in parliament this week, Rajapakse lost two votes of censorship, but he refuses to go and Sirisena has not yet accepted the motions.
On Saturday, the Wickremesinghe Unified National Party (UNP) wrote to Facebook's chief, Mark Zuckerberg, asking the American company not to cooperate with Rajapakse's administration.
"We urge Facebook to refrain from disclosing information about platform users to illegal government officials, unless they are duly sanctioned by a court," said L & ###################################################################################> 39; NPU.
The UNP also complained of blocking its official Facebook page on Thursday, in anticipation of a mass rally organized to express solidarity with Wickremesinghe, who claims that he is still prime Minister.
Sirisena ordered Facebook's ban across Sri Lanka in March after blaming the latter for spreading hate speech and fueling inter-communal violence that resulted in the deaths of three people and the destruction of property.
Since then, Facebook had declared deploying more staff to identify and eliminate the inflammatory material of Sri Lankan users.
This week, Sri Lankans had to rely on social media to watch their lawmakers fight and throw chili powder after the main telecommunications company ceased broadcasting live.
