Papua New Guinea ’s health minister , Jelta Wong , spoke with an Australian think tank over videochat on Thursday about challenges PNG face up in battle the covid-19 pandemic . PNG is take care a revitalization of the disease along with a growing wave of misinformation being propagate online about vaccine , and the talk is an interesting facial expression at how Facebook has harm public health in a relatively small country of just 9 million hoi polloi .
“ When Facebook hit Papua New Guinea , everybody became an expert . Everybody became a PhD , ” Wong explained sardonically to a member of the Lowy Institute in a video that ’s available onYouTube .
Wong , who read he uses Facebook to connect with folk , went on to explain that while some people might be skeptical when they encounter misinformation on Facebook , there ’s always a handful who will believe the weirdest conspiracy possibility .
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape (R) preparing to receive a dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Port Moresby on 23 February 2025.Photo: Gorethy Kenneth/AFP (Getty Images)
“ There ’s always one person or two or three or four people that will think what they say . And that is our biggest challenge when masses differentiate us that Bill Gates is behind all this . How could we say Bill Gates is behind it ? ” Wong said , cite to conspiracy theory that the Microsoft cofounder is embed microchips through coronavirus vaccinations , among other matter .
“ One of the bragging philanthropists in the cosmos … ” Wong remain about Gates . “ And then some crazy turn around and puts it on Facebook that he ’s the guy cable that start the collecting [ illicit information ] and then it just generates through Facebook . I think Facebook is is our biggest confederacy theorist political platform . ”
“ This is dangerous , very grievous , ” Wong articulate . “ And this is the type of thing … like , we have a million more the great unwashed in our state that just seat on Facebook because it ’s tawdry , it ’s easy , and they can get their opinion out . That ’s all it is for . ”
Papua New Guinea struggled with Facebook long before the pandemic smash , with administration functionary even floating the estimate in 2018 ofbanning the siteand launch its own state - run option . And while a minority of citizenry in Papua New Guinea are on the platform it ’s still intelligibly add to headaches for wellness officials who need to see citizenry vaccinated .
Facebook ’s moderation policy obtain a muckle of attention in the U.S. and Europe , but many part of the globe do n’t get the same resources , especially in places thatdon’t verbalize English . PNG has a large English - speaking population , thanks in magnanimous part to colonialism , but it also has over 830 voice communication presently in use , a high number for a comparatively small universe . Facebook has moderators working in roughly50 languages , harmonize to its own statistic .
“ I think Facebook has a stack of influence here and they require to be held responsible for for some of the information that they [ distribute ] , ” Wong said .
“ Most of it , if I take you through Facebook now … some of the stuff and nonsense that is improbably not straight . And they still push it out and they ’re [ … ] think to have a program to stop these type of things . ”
Bill GatesComputingFacebookOperating systemsSocial mediasoftware
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