Everyone in Papua New Guinea is being banned from Facebook for a month

An entire nation plans to undergo a government-mandated Facebook ban.

The government of Papua New Guinea announced Tuesday that it will block the social network for a month to allow researchers to identify fake accounts and users who post pornography and misinformation, according to the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier.

Papua New Guinea’s communications minister, Sam Basil, told the newspaper that the temporary shutdown would give researchers a chance to analyse how Facebook is used in the country and to explore the development of its own social network for the nation’s citizens. Basil said preventing access to Facebook in the country could reveal benefits to the population or lead to the conclusion that people are actually better off without it.

Basil did not say when the ban would begin, according to the Post-Courier.

Facebook said in a statement to The Washington Post on Tuesday, “We have reached out to the government to understand their concerns.”

According to government estimates cited by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, about 600,000 to 700,000 people in Papua New Guinea use Facebook, out of a population of roughly 8 million.