SIMMERING -[FACEBOOK]- SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka's largest political party Saturday asked Facebook to protect the identity of its supporters, fearing a crackdown by what it called ''illegal'' government.

The Indian Ocean Nation has been in a crisis since last month with two men claiming to be  prime minister,  MPs brawling in parliament and the administration paralysed.

It began on October 26 when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe as premier and replaced him with former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse.

In chaotic scenes in parliament this week, Rajapakse lost twp votes of no confidence but he is refusing to go and Sirisena has yet to acknowledge the motions.

On Saturday  Wickremesinghe's United National Party [UNP] wrote to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg asking the US firm not to cooperate with Rajapakse's administration.

''We urge Facebook to refrain from disclosing information about......users of the platform to any officials of the illegal government  unless it is properly sanctioned by a court of law,'' the UNP said.

The UNP has also complained that its official page was blocked by Facebook on Thursday ahead of a mass rally it organised to express solidarity with Wickremesinghe, who insists he is still prime minister.

Sirisena ordered a  ban  on Facebook across Sri Lanka in March after blaming it for spreading hate speech and fuelling intercommunal violence that led to the deaths of three people and destruction of property.

Since then, Facebook had said it was deploying more staff to identify and remove inflammatory material from  Sri Lankan users.

This week Sri Lankans had to rely on  social media  to watch their lawmakers fighting and throwing chili powder after the main telecommunications company stopped its live broadcast. [Agencies].