New technology created as a censorship tool by Facebook would allow China or other nations to censor content before it reaches news feeds.
Facebook has been banned in China since 2009 because there has not been a way to prevent content from coming up in people’s newsfeeds. Although the social media giant has allowed other countries to remove offensive posts from users’ newsfeeds, use of these secretly developed tools would be the first time anyone has been able to prevent certain content from showing up altogether, according to Fortune.
Actual censorship of newsfeeds would be delegated to a third party, The New York Times reported.
The censorship tool is causing controversy within Facebook, which has openness as a mission statement. Several employees who were working on the tool left the company over concerns about its use to censor news feeds, the Times said.
Sources within Facebook pointed out no decision has been made about whether to use the tool in China or elsewhere, and that the tool’s creation does not mean that it will ever be used, the Times reported.
A Facebook spokeswoman told Fortune in a statement, "We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country. However, we have not made any decision on our approach to China. Our focus right now is on helping Chinese businesses and developers expand to new markets outside China by using our ad platform."
China has a current population of 1.4 billion people and could be a key growth market to keep Facebook expanding in the near future. At the current time, Facebook sells advertising to Chinese businesses through its Hong Kong office.
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