The Lao communist government regulate social media and check on people posting incorrect or inappropriate information. The move came last year following growing circulation of incorrect and misleading information on social media among the country’s increasing online community, notably on the Facebook website in the wake of Lao Airlines plane crash.
The number of Facebook users in Laos has jumped in recent years. In 2011 the country was home to 60,000 Facebook users, which jumped to 190,000 in 2012 and almost doubled to reach 400,000 users in 2015. About 500,000 to 600,000 people use the internet in Laos. The government do not “block” social media sites, including Facebook citing they realise social networks are useful.
Some countries in the region have blocked access to Facebook and other social networking sites, although citizens can often access the banned sites through a simple proxy server.