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Facebook Government The Internet

Papua New Guinea Bans Facebook For a Month To Root Out 'Fake Users' (theguardian.com) 86

Posted by msmash from the taking-a-stand dept.
The Papua New Guinean government will ban Facebook for a month in a bid to crack down on "fake users" and study the effects the website is having on the population. From a report: The communication minister, Sam Basil, said the shutdown would allow his department's analysts to carry out research and analysis on who was using the platform, and how they were using it, admits rising concerns about social well-being, security and productivity. "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," Basil told the Post Courier newspaper. "This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly." Basil has repeatedly raised concerns about protecting the privacy of PNG's Facebook users in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica revelations, which found Facebook had leaked the personal data of tens of millions of users to a private company. The minister has closely followed the US Senate inquiry into Facebook.
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Papua New Guinea Bans Facebook For a Month To Root Out 'Fake Users' More

Papua New Guinea Bans Facebook For a Month To Root Out 'Fake Users'

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  • Was this guy elected? Sam Basil sure sounds like a Western name.
    Sounds to me like what PNG needs is Transparency. Maybe they could establish it as an 'alpha value', even.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      PNG should be solving its human rights and sexual violence problems first. Place is a shithole.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        But they have neat [google.is] plants [google.is].

        • Wow, are those things even edible??

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rei ( 128717 )

            The first one (the giant banana) isn't (at least the fruits aren't; you can use the plant the same way you use regular bananas, e.g. leaves, flowers, etc). It's just a monster (reports of up to 30 meters tall!). The second one ("Red Fruit") is edible, and is one of the few worthwhile pandanus species (the only other one really worthwhile for cullinary purposes is fragrant pandan). Red fruit produces an *extremely* carotinoid / vitamin A rich oil (to the point that it's dark red) that you can use in cookin

        • PNG should be solving its human rights and sexual violence problems first.

          But they have neat [google.is] plants [google.is].

          Apparently, they don't have eggplants, so that's a start.

      • Ummm... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by thesupraman ( 179040 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @05:07AM (#56692060)

        Does one somehow exclude the other? Hard to see your point here.

        This guys job is 'Communications Minister', probably not his remit.
        Seems like a pretty sensible idea anyway, Hopefully they simply forget to re-enable it.

  • PNG Colonial Past (Score:2, Informative)

    by sickre ( 917795 )
    PNG (Papua New Guinea) was an Australian Mandate for a long time. The country was on a slow and steady pathway to development and independence (keep in mind cannibalism was still practiced widely there until the 20th century). Then in the 70s, a bunch of do-gooder Australians hijacked the process in the midst of other native independence campaigns worldwide, and dumped independence on PNG even though they were still unprepared. It resulted in things like ministers and senior bureaucrats without a high scho

    • Even wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] )
      acknowledges that PNG has no independence. It was handed over to Indonesia. There is a fight for independence - from Indonesia.

      • Re:PNG Colonial Past (Score:5, Informative)

        by hazardPPP ( 4914555 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @07:11AM (#56692382)

        I'm afraid you've messed things up a bit.

        The island of Papua, also known as New Guinea, is divided into two. The eastern half of the island, along with surrounding islands, was mostly a German colony (called German New Guinea, and it has left behind interesting placenames, such as the Bismarck sea), with parts claimed by the British. After 1918, the British claim was combined with the former German colony to create a League of Nations mandate governed by Australia. In 1949 this mandate became a United Nations Trust Territory administred by Australia. In 1975 this territorry became independent as the "Independent State of Papua New Guinea", abbreviated to PNG.

        The western half of the island was a Dutch colony (and never administred by Australia), just like Indonesia was. Indonesia became independent in 1949, but West Papua remained a Dutch colony. Indonesia claimed West Papua as its own, and was quite aggressive in attempting to kick the Dutch out and acquire it. In 1960s, the Dutch started preparing to grant West Papua independence, but under threat of Indonesian invasion, handed West Papua over to a UN transitional administration - which then handed it over to Indonesia in 1963, when Indonesian troops occupied the western part of the island. In 1969, there was supposed to be a referendum on whether West Papua wanted to be part of Indonesia or not, but the Indonesian essentially faked it, and just annexed the territory outright. Since then there has been an armed conflict of low intensity between the Indonesian government and some groups in West Papua who want independece or unification with PNG. That part you got right...but that's not happening in PNG, but in West Papua.

        • I'm afraid

          that almost always means "I triumphantically point out that" but you're right. I didn't know.

          • Your friends, up there on the sanctuary moon, are walking into a trap, as is your Rebel fleet. It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them. Oh, I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.

            Ahhh, I finally understand the subtext. The Emperor was being sarcastic!

    • By Australian mandate, do you mean the same thing that the Australian mandate did to the aborigines, separate children from their parents, make them work as maids and servants, and whip and rape them?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by sickre ( 917795 )
        If you see an Aboriginal boy who is ritually having his penis split (penile subincision) or an Aboriginal girl who is being ritually gang raped as part of a marriage or coming of age ceremony, would you take them away from their families? Australian Aboriginals were a stone-age group of peoples, and incredibly primitive. They had no agriculture, no writing, no civilisation. Taking Aboriginal children away from dysfunctional families and giving them proper care is still practiced in Australia today.
        • Plenty of Americans today have their penises circumcised for no real reason, not to speak about Jews and Muslims who do it for religious reasons. Should we take you all away from your families?

          • Plenty of Americans today have their penises circumcised for no real reason, not to speak about Jews and Muslims who do it for religious reasons. Should we take you all away from your families?

            Depends if you think modern circumcision and primitive sub-incision are the same thing?
            I also note you didn't talk about the routine rape and incest, I'm pretty sure you get jail time for that in the US sometimes?

          • Jews and Moslems do it for the same reason Americans do it: hygene.
            However in times were the priest is also the only one who can read and write and do medicine, it is obviously 'written as a tradition' in the 'holy book'.
            That does not make it 'religious' per se.

    • It resulted in things like ministers and senior bureaucrats without a high school education being selected.

      It could be worse, they could have law degrees, or even better credentials, like the Australian Minister for Women being a chauvinist who appointed the least number of women in his cabinet in quite a long time.

    • Utterly Incorrect. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      PNG (Papua New Guinea) was an Australian Mandate for a long time. The country was on a slow and steady pathway to development and independence (keep in mind cannibalism was still practiced widely there until the 20th century). Then in the 70s, a bunch of do-gooder Australians hijacked the process in the midst of other native independence campaigns worldwide, and dumped independence on PNG even though they were still unprepared. It resulted in things like ministers and senior bureaucrats without a high school education being selected. So, PNG still has a long way to go, though they would have been in a better place if they were an Australian Mandate. I guess banning Facebook and focusing people on work and productivity is probably a good move.

      And other such lies... Are you a member of Reclaim Australia, Patriots Front or other such FB Racist groups (yes, I'm calling a spade a spade, they're racists)?

      PNG was a former Dutch colony until after WWII where the UN became involved for a number of years before a highly suspect vote joined PNG to Indonesia (which many Papuans rejected, so there is resistance to Indonesian control to this day). Australia never "owned" or "mandated" PNG, in fact we were barely involved beyond supporting the Dutch via th

  • When can we adopt this? (Score:3)

    by Peter P Peters ( 5350981 ) on Tuesday May 29, 2018 @06:55AM (#56692320)
    Most people don't know they have an addiction until you take it away. I'd support an annual social media free month just so we can all some perspective back in our lives.

    • Just because you don't use FB, it does not mean that no one has legitimated uses.
      Most asians e.g. use it as ersatz email and as messenger. It does not make sense to take that away for a month.

      • Just because you don't use FB, it does not mean that no one has legitimated uses.

        Here we go...

        Most asians

        That doesn't sound racist at all. Did you do a survey of most Asians? I'm interested in how you come to such conclusions?

        e.g. use it as ersatz email and as messenger. It does not make sense to take that away for a month.

        Couple of points:
        Messenger is a separate product from FB
        Most Asians I know (and I used to live there) use Wechat for messaging
        Email is still quite popular [techinasia.com] in Asia, if your statement is true, who is using it?
        That whole point is of going without is as a test to see how much value you give something. You can't get that from guessing.

        • If you are in asia and ask for some ones eMail address, the chance is over 50% that they give you their FB name.

          'Messenger is a separate product from FB', it would really help if you used FB instead of writing bullshit.
          How old is FB? Since when do smart phones exist? Since when does FB messenger exist? FB â" the web site â" has an integrated "messenger" since long before the messenger app existed.

          'Email is still quite popular in Asia, if your statement is true, who is using it?' (what do you mean

          • If you are in asia and ask for some ones eMail address, the chance is over 50% that they give you their FB name.

            I'm still waiting for a citation for this assumption. As I said I used to live in Asia and my experience was different. So you're going to need more than just your opinion to convince me.

            'Messenger is a separate product from FB', it would really help if you used FB instead of writing bullshit. How old is FB? Since when do smart phones exist? Since when does FB messenger exist? FB â" the web site â" has an integrated "messenger" since long before the messenger app existed.

            I'm not even sure what this is? Is English your first language?

            'Email is still quite popular in Asia, if your statement is true, who is using it?'

            People is Asia of course (I'm getting the impression that English is a challenge for you)

            (what do you mean with 'still'?)

            They used it before, they still use it now. Do you not now what this word means?

            That is a pretty stupid question. Obviously the people and companies that have an email address are using it. What has that to do with my statement?

            So a lot of people in Asia use email, but your statement was that they don't. Yet now you say

            • Before people got smartphones, they mostly had no internet. Hence they did not use email, so your "they still are using email" makes no sense, especially as I never said, that they switched from email to facebook. I simply pointed out that for most asians FB is an important messaging platform, either via the web interface or now with messenger.
              If you don't agree that is your problem. From all my asian friends, well, except japanese, not even half of them have an email address ...
              There is nothing to prove he

    • I can speak from experience -- I considered myself mildly addicted and deactivated my account for two weeks as I was on a break before a new job, during which I just walked and read and slept. I discovered that after two weeks I was very reluctant to go back to FB as it felt like a pit that would drain my energy so I stayed deactivated. Three months later, my account is still deactivated and I only log in a couple of times a week to check the feeds from a couple of people and pages who consistently post ver

      • I can speak from experience -- I considered myself mildly addicted and deactivated my account for two weeks as I was on a break before a new job, during which I just walked and read and slept. I discovered that after two weeks I was very reluctant to go back to FB as it felt like a pit that would drain my energy so I stayed deactivated.

        I call it a time sink. You go there, time drains away and you're left wondering where your life went. That's no way to live
        I do the same thing most of my activities I spend a lot of time on. Take a voluntary break, look back and check whether I actually got value from them or I was caught up in some sort of addictive behaviour where it is controlling me. This is why I think it would be good to have a national day/week/month of social media free time. It is poison and until you actually have an enforced bre

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