Papua New Guinea is not taking Facebook's fake user problem lightly. The country will be banning Facebook for a month due to the social media website's fake user problem, and to see how the network affects their population.
“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,” Sam Basil, Papua New Guinea's communication minister told the Post Courier. He added that citizens were never properly educated on the risks associated with Facebook.
“This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”
Basil closely followed the Cambridge Analytica situation, in which the personal data of millions of people was leaked by Facebook to a private company. He said, until recently, no one bothered to look at the real pros and cons of a website like Facebook, and maybe this ban will even mean a new social network for PNG.
“We can also look at the possibility of creating a new social network site for PNG citizens to use with genuine profiles as well,” said Basil. “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.”
It is unclear when the ban will come into effect.
