Papua New Guinea has banned Facebook in what it calls a “test” to regulate online content and “protect” its citizens from hate speech and pornography.
PNG police minister Peter Tsiamalili said the test, which began on Monday and extended to Tuesday, was done under the framework of the Pacific nation’s Anti-Terrorism Act 2024.
The police minister said the initiative was undertaken to ensure “responsible usage” of social media platforms while keeping “harmful content” out of public discourse,
Access to Facebook has been cut to over a million estimated users of the social media platform in the country, but local media reports suggest many are bypassing the ban by using virtual private networks or VPN.
“The unchecked proliferation of fake news, hate speech, pornography, child exploitation, and incitement to violence on platforms such as Facebook is unacceptable,” Mr Tsiamalili said.
“These challenges increasingly threaten the safety, dignity, and well-being of our populace,” he said, adding that the measure was not an “attempt to suppress free speech”.
The police minister urged Facebook and other social media platforms to “act with responsibility” and warned that if they are misused, the government would “not hesitate to take decisive action to safeguard its citizens”.
However, critiques raised concerns about the sudden ban.
Many small business owners rely on the platform to connect with customers.
Opposition minister Allan Bird described the move as “draconian”.
“There is no limit to the powers the minister of police can exercise under this new law. It is draconian law designed to take away our freedoms,” Mr Bird said, according to local news reports.
“We are now heading into dangerous territory and everyone is powerless to stop this tyranny,” he said.
The ban was reportedly enforced without informing the country’s own information and technology regulator – the National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA).
The agency initially said the cause of Monday’s Facebook outage was “unclear”, according to Australia’s ABC News.
NICTA chief executive Kilakupa Gulo-Vui later called for carefully managing the balance between national security and digital freedom.
“Public confidence in our digital governance relies on transparency and consistency in how we approach online regulation,” Mr Gulo-Vui said in a statement.
PNG has long mulled banning Facebook for its citizens.
In 2018, it was banned for a month as authorities attempted to root out fake profiles on the platform.
Again in 2023, it launched an inquiry into misinformation and harmful content on the social media platform.
Source: independent.co.uk