Papua New Guinea to Ban Facebook for a Month Pending Investigation

Papua New Guinea is set to ban Facebook for a month in an effort to study the social network’s effects on citizens and investigate fake accounts.

“The time will allow information to be collected to identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed,” claimed Papua New Guinea Communication Minister Sam Basil. “This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”

“We cannot allow the abuse of Facebook to continue in the country,” Basil declared.

Last month, Basil also reportedly claimed, “The national government, swept along by IT globalization, never really had the chance to ascertain the advantages or disadvantages [of Facebook] – and even educate and provide guidance on use of social networks like Facebook to PNG users.”

“The two [user data] cases involving Facebook show us the vulnerabilities that Papua New Guinean citizens and residents on their personal data and exchanges when using this social network,” he continued, adding, “We can also look at the possibility of creating a new social network site for PNG citizens to use with genuine profiles as well… If there need be then we can gather our local applications developers to create a site that is more conducive for Papua New Guineans to communicate within the country and abroad as well.”