An entire country is unplugging Facebook

The entire country of Papua New Guinea will have access to Facebook turned off for a month in order to study the platform's impact on fake news and the spread of misinformation, according to the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier.

Why it matters: The directive from the Communications and Information Technology Department is meant to give the government the ability to assess the impact of the social media site on users.

• Communications Minister Sam Basil says it can look at the possibility of creating a new social network site for Papua New Guinea citizens specifically to use with genuine profiles.
• “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,” he said.