It happens in India too. Whenever there is a mass movement, government tries to stop social media. And everyone starts blaming government for curtailing free speech. But I think there is a really good reason to do it considering the lack of resources to effectively police the population. One bad example I came across recently was this news: fake whatsapp/facebook messages led to the killing of 7 men
I heard a story in Singapore. I don’t know how much truth there is to it but basically: there was conflict going on in China, and every time the news told the story the issue grew worst. China asked singapore for advice and LKY said to stop posting it the news and no one will know about it, and it won’t grow and it will die down. So China forced the media to stop talking abou it and the conflict died down in a few days.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/a-whatsapp-message...