Papua New Guinea’s government has shut down social media platform Facebook, in what it describes as a “test” to mitigate hate speech, misinformation, pornography and “other detrimental content”.
The test, conducted under the country’s anti-terrorism laws, began on Monday morning and has extended into Tuesday.
Facebook users in the country have been unable to log-in to the platform and it is unclear how long the ban will go on for.
The government’s move was not flagged ahead of the “test” on Monday — a move opposition MPs and media leaders have described as “tyranny” and an “abuse of human rights”.
Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in the country, with an estimated 1.3 million users, or about half of the country’s estimated 2.6 million internet users.
The platform is a critical tool for public discourse in the country, with many highly active forums used to discuss PNG politics and social issues.
Yet, the government has been highly critical of Facebook with the platform often blamed for helping spread misinformation, particularly in light of a recent spate of tribal killings in the country.
The platform is a critical tool for public discourse in the country, with many highly active forums used to discuss PNG politics and social issues.
There is your fucking problem. Stop fucking centralizing an entire countries discourse to a corporate propaganda platform.
Especially a foreign social media company with algorithm that isn’t transparent and has the power to block whatever users and posts they want to push the desired narrative. Its not a free and open platform but a propaganda tool of a single billionaire.
I remember as kid I thought adults could be looked up to and had wisdom.
Right???
This… I know that my views aren’t the majority, but man do I love this platform and how people actually will have a legit conversation about issues.
The people who are over emotional and stirring the pot don’t get the same support here. Most just want the truth and to actually talk. I love this!
What porn? Girls in bikinis?
Yeah I’m not sure Facebook is what I’d be worried about for porn.
Worse. Bare ankles.
Hussies!
Normally, I see any news on government blocking social media for any stated reasons as typically a cover for censorship. But with how Facebook and other social media morphed into something else, I could not care less if they are blocked.
I want to celebrate this, but it’s hard not to see it as an attempt at authoritarianism. I think the right way to do a Facebook ban is to ensure people have access to a good alternative (like Mastodon) before pulling the plug.
This absolutely is censorship. Correct way to handle this would be to create laws and prosecute Facebook for not following them.
All of these comments are justifying autocracy because it’s their flavor of autocracy smh
Misinformation and hate speech on Facebook, sure, but pornography?
It’s pornography speech.
Not sure how Porn = Terrorism. Sounds like mission creep to me… Oh well, I guess it makes a change from using Anti-Terror laws to stop people putting the wrong things in wheelie bins: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3333366/Half-of-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-bin-crimes.html
To shut down pornography they might have to block 1 or 2 more websites … at least.
Just a small handful, no big deal.
Oh, snap! You just Papua’d his New Guinea with that dick joke.
As long as it only occupies one hand then fine.
I mean…I need 2 hands. It’s a handful. It’s 2 handfuls! It’s a lot to go around!
…ladies.
Look ma, no hands!
Do people use Facebook for porn? Like, on their personal accounts? That’s weird.
The reels and ads they shove in my face are often very scantily clad women. I could see a country/culture with different values getting real upset about that.
i don’t know, only went with what the title says
Sure, Papua New Guinea said no, but what did Momma New Guinea say?
boooo
The shut down Facebook? All of it?
Or did they simply block it in their country?
What, you expect journalists to use the correct words to unambiguously convey a concept?
This just reeks of control.
Maybe, but it’s an onion of a problem.
We all know how much FB spreads disinfo and brain rot. The positive effect of disabling it feels as significant as the negative effect on freedom of speech.
The dichotomy is very much analogous to how I feel about tiktok bans.
Is it really a problem for freedom of speech, if it’s only a platform getting banned and not specific content?
If you are allowed to talk about anything still everywhere else on the web, I can’t see the freedom of speech card being valid in this case about FB.
FB is already controlling what you see, making freedom of speech better without them.
Look at what’s really happening though: the state is implicitly saying you can have free expression provided your reach is miniscule/ineffectual. The moment you get traction is the moment it will move to block use of your preferred platforms, or simply hard-/algorithmically ban you - it’s functionally identical to suppression of speech/association
They rely on the public’s credulity when they insist freedoms are intact because ‘only one website’ is verboten. It’s a dirty exploit. In reality, all platform denial should be protested
Facebook exclusively promoted rage bait and is used as a propaganda machine, if anything they’re circumventing a free and open space by not showing you everything in the first place.
If Facebook simply gave you a wall of every single thing pushed and didn’t hide/promote things you would have a leg to stand on.
I really don’t see any downsides, if anything they should ban all the major social media platforms and encourage diversity of platform ownership among the platforms used in the public discourse to strengthen freedom of speech.
Yeah, I understand. Meta is invasive, pervasive, and becomes endemic. I’m in Mexico looking for a place to live. The country runs on WhatsApp.
I agree that Facebook completely sucks, but I disagree that banning any service is worth it from a freedom of speech perspective. Once you let your country ban services it doesn’t like, it’s one bad administration from banning services critical of it. Don’t go down that road.
Agreed. One layer of the onion peeled. Next layer is that all of the content you see is curated and you only are fed fits your profile as dictated by the algorithm. You are served more dopamine hits and churn a lot of nothing.
There’s another layer of the onion next. Let’s hear what it is.
Sure, and I bailed on Facebook and Meta products long ago because I found their services insidious. I still don’t trust a government to decide which services to ban though.
Is my sentence so vague that it appears I’m saying that? Discourse is harder when you deviate from the format.
It’s literally never for a good reason. This also includes bans targeted at specific sub populations
It’s trolls, trolls are what Facebook stands on. But what do the trolls stand on? It’s trolls on trolls on trolls all the way down.
There is nothing trustworthy on Facebook. Shut it down.
My father is a prepper in his 70s and my brother has become a flat earther. Down with Facebook and YouTube, the two halves of the most evil and vile existence on this planet. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Youtube is not all bad. The algorithm is, but the vast amount of content on it means that theres some genuinely helpful stuff. Videos about repair and fixing, educational videos on any subject in the world, videos about acceptance and self love
There’s no hope for facebook though, except the not so facebook marketplace (im gonna need a resurgence in like craigslist for that)
It’s really suspicious how the yt algo keeps trying to deliver me right wing content when I don’t really engage with political content on that site and the few pieces I do, is Behind the Bastards or Lazerpig.
I ended up installed a 3rd party channel blocker.
edit: I’ll add that Amazon keeps suggesting right wing podcasts as being related to very non-political items(just window shopping Amazon. I don’t purchase from there unless no one else has the item).
Remember when Myanmar happened on Facebook because they all thought Facebook was the entire internet.
Zuck was in the mud then.
There’s pornography on Facebook! That’s disgusting! Someone let me know where so I can be sure to avoid it…
Everyone should kill their accounts and connection to the site.
Two out three ain’t bad. Go for it.
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