Demonstrators flooded the streets of Lebanon on Friday to protest a planned tax on WhatsApp — with tensions reaching fever pitch as the country grapples with a severe economic crisis.

Protesters smashed windows, burned tires and blocked the road to Beirut’s international airport to express their fury with the government’s handling of the country’s soaring debt.

But the trigger for the rioting was the news Thursday that the government was planning to impose a $0.20 daily levy on calls made via WhatsApp, among other taxes on tobacco and gasoline, the BBC reported.

Banks, schools and businesses were shut down as the protests escalated, some demonstrators rioting and setting fire to buildings while accusing the country’s lawmakers of decades of corruption and financial mismanagement.

The small Arab county that borders the Mediterranean and the Middle East has the third-highest debt level in the world, currently standing at $86 billion, CBS News reported.

Tensions have been worsened by the arrival of 1.5 million Syrian refugees since 2011 in the tiny nation that is home to just 6 million.

The planned WhatsApp tax was scrapped just hours after violent protests broke out, the biggest demonstrations Lebanon has seen since 2015.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri — who last month was accused of shelling out more than $16 million to his bikini-model mistress — is expected to address the crisis later Friday.