China is one of the most lucrative markets on the planet and yet it’s not that easy to access. The government maintains strict control which is why indigenously developed services similar to Google, Twitter, and Facebook are common there instead of the actual services that are banned. Facebook has been trying to break into the Chinese market for a few years now, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself took a trip to the People’s Republic on several occasions. It appears that Facebook might be one step closer to achieving that goal as the company is reportedly creating a censorship tool for China.
The New York Times reports that Facebook is creating a new tool that will disable users’ posts from appearing in the News Feed in certain geographic areas. It may very well be the first step in ensuring that the Chinese government allows Facebook access to its market.
According to the report, this tool is causing unrest within the company as several employees quit in protest after working on this tool. Facebook’s tool would basically prevent posts from surfacing in News Feed to content deemed objectionable by Chinese authorities would easily be blocked. The scribe claims that Facebook is going to outsource censorship duties to a third-party.
The report does mention that while this tool is one of the many methods that Facebook has considered in order to break into China, it can’t be said for sure right now if the social network will decide to deploy it after all.
It can’t really be said for sure right now if Facebook will decide to use this tool in order to gain access to the Chinese market because it risks setting a precedent which will embolden other nations to demand similar censorship powers when it comes to the world’s largest social network.
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