Facebook claimed to develop experimental censorship feature in consideration of China re-entry

According to reports on Tuesday from the New York Times, the software suppresses posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographies. The company also restricted access to certain posts in Pakistan, Russia, and Turkey.

Citing unnamed former and current employees, the newspaper said that with the backing of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook developed a software that withholds posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in certain geographies. But it turns out that Facebook might be giving in to China’s strict censorship laws to gain access into the country, the New York Times reported. Initially, Zuckerberg called the idea that misinformation could have influenced the election “a pretty crazy” one-but more recently, he’s conceded that hoax stories are something his company is obligated to address. Instead, it would potentially provide the tool to a third-party in China, like a local partner company.

The company has tried to tackle the spread of fake news on its site: It launched a tool to allow users to report hoax posts previous year, and recently announced that it would block fake news sites from using its ad network.

Like other USA internet companies, Facebook complies with foreign governments’ requests to block certain content after it’s posted, but the new tool takes the practice a step further by preventing posts from appearing in feeds from the beginning, the Times reported.

“If you wish to increase the real understanding between human beings, you have to offer more liberty in order to meet the entire width of cultural expressions and discuss substantial matters”, Mr. Hansen wrote in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

USA internet companies have a practice of complying with legitimate government requests to block posted information in keeping with local laws, subject to evaluation.

Facebook itself wouldn’t be deciding what to censor. The only way to reach it is through a virtual private network (VPN), a service that lets users inside China circumvent the so-called Great Firewall. The Times adds that while Facebook is building the software, a third party will deploy it and be responsible for what gets censored and what does not.

In an effort to appease the Chinese government and enter one of the largest markets in the world, Facebook chose to build a tool that would censor content.

Facebook to get back into China?

Zuckerberg himself is said to be supporting and defending the effort.

For now, Facebook’s business does have a presence given that the company still sells advertising to Chinese companies.

Interestingly, some of the engineers working on Facebook’s censorship algorithms, left the company after concern over the tool.