The Papua New Guinea government is again flagging restricting or banning Facebook and other social media in the country, after a tumultuous few weeks in politics which may still see a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.

The prime minister, Peter O’Neill, has said he would order cabinet to conduct a “complete review” of social media as the first task of the newly appointed communications minister on Thursday.

O’Neill said “fake news” was destroying PNG people and society.

“We have lived without social media for thousands of years before,” he said in comments reported by the Post Courier on Wednesday.

O’Neill did not detail the parameters of the review and his office did not respond to requests for further information.

However, the commerce and industry minister, Wera Mori, went further, promising to support any motion in parliament which banned Facebook for a year. “I condemn the use of Facebook in this country,” Mori told the National.

Mori said he supported freedom of speech but a 12-month ban would allow people to “get their acts right and learn to use it better”. “There needs to be some legislation governing it.”

The flagged review and ban comes as O’Neill faces a potential vote of no confidence in parliament. Last week his party and ruling coalition were hit by a string of high-ranking resignations and defections. MPs crossed between the government and opposition, camped out at separate Port Moresby hotels, before settling in numbers which kept O’Neill’s majority.

Opposition figures pledged to push for a vote of no confidence but lost momentum when O’Neill successfully had parliament adjourned for three weeks. He has since announced a ministerial reshuffle.

Dr Tess Newton Cain, a Pacific analyst and visiting fellow at the Australian National University, said the move appeared “a bit unsubtle” and it was clear there were people in the opposition camp who were active on social media and had used it to mobilise support from the wider community.

“So it’s a bit of a worry then when the government starts saying we’re going to have a look at banning or regulating it,” Cain told Guardian Australia.

Cain said there were examples across the Pacific region and the rest of the world of governments latching on to “the trope of fake news” and using it to justify blanket bans.

“The fuzziness is between the concern that people are telling lies and spreading misinformation, and being concerned that people are saying mean things about the government,” she said.

Cain said social media in Papua New Guinea tended to be used more by people with the disposable income to purchase data for their phones and access the internet, but it was “certainly a really important forum for political engagement and discussion”.

“I think the government feels quite rightly that it’s on the back foot when it comes to using Facebook, because people like [opposition MP] Bryan Kramer are quite adept at using that platform.”

While the government had raised reviews or bans of social media before, the context of a looming vote of no confidence changed the context.

In May last year reported comments from the then communications minister, Sam Basil, that PNG would ban Facebook for a month during the Apec meeting to crack down on “fake users” prompted an outcry across the country and region.

Basil told the Post Courier the shutdown would allow government research to “identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed”.

“This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”

He later pulled back from the comments, saying there was no plan for a shutdown but he was not afraid to do it if he received advice that said it was a good idea.