Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando told BBC Sinhala that Facebook would be accessible by Friday.

The Minister said Facebook executives were due in Colombo on Thursday for meetings with government authorities.

The Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister has made several requests to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to remove the ban on social media that was imposed on March 6.

The government pulled the plug on social media after the sites were used to spread hate speech and incitements to violence that resulted in violence against minority Muslims in Kandy.