Papua New Guinea communications minister, Sam Basil, says “the one-month shutdown would allow information to be collected about people using the social media site for nefarious purposes.
“Users who upload pornography and defamatory information will be identified and removed from the networking site. This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”
He also said tech experts in PNG were capable of developing a local alternative to Facebook.
“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.”
No timeframe was given on the shutdown, although some reports suggested it could coincide with the capital, Port Moresby, hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit later this year.
Source: Al Jazeera
