Authorities in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday said they had unblocked Facebook after cutting off access in the Pacific nation due to a “counter-terrorism” operation.
Facebook and its Messenger platform had been inaccessible since going offline on Monday.
Police Minister Peter Tsiamalili initially said Papua New Guinea had blocked the sites as a “test” aimed at limiting hate speech, misinformation, and adult content.
On Wednesday, the country's police commissioner David Manning said Facebook had been taken down as his officers tackled criminals abusing the social network.
“A counter-terrorism operation is under way to apprehend two men connected to attempts to incite an act of terrorism,” he said, adding police had reduced the immediate threat to the community.
“Temporary restrictions on the Facebook social media platform have been removed,” the police chief added.
The sudden ban had sparked backlash from opposition MPs and journalists, who said it undermined human rights and democratic freedoms.
Defending the decision, Mr Tsiamalili said the government was not seeking to suppress free speech but had a “responsibility to protect citizens from harmful content.”
The country’s regulator, the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (Nicta), denied taking part in the exercise.
Facebook is the country’s most widely used social media platform, with an estimated 1.4 million users, according to the World Population Review.
The ban comes amid concerns over declining press freedom in PNG, where social media has increasingly become a vital space for public discourse.
Neville Choi, president of the National Media Council, said the move “borders on political autocracy and an abuse of human rights”.
He also noted that at least two communications-related government agencies appeared unaware of the plan, despite police claims of co-ordination.
Opposition MP Allan Bird described the ban as “just step one,” warning: “We are now heading into dangerous territory, and everyone is powerless to stop this tyranny,” he said in a Facebook post.
His comments come months after the passage of sweeping counter-terrorism laws that grant the government broader powers to monitor and restrict online communications.
Despite the ban, many Papua New Guineans are reportedly bypassing restrictions using virtual private networks (VPNs).
This is not the first time authorities have acted against Facebook. In 2018, the platform was banned for a month as officials sought to identify and remove fake accounts.
A parliamentary inquiry launched in 2023 has also scrutinised “fake news, bad news reporting, and social media platforms” in the country.
PNG is not the only country to restrict access to Facebook. The platform remains banned in China, where it has been blocked since 2009, and North Korea, where access to most global social media platforms is prohibited.
In Iran, Facebook is also blocked, although many users access it through VPNs. Russia has restricted Facebook access since 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine, and countries like Vietnam and Turkey have implemented temporary blocks during periods of political unrest or protests.
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Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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The biog
Age: 19
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Favourite book: The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
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