As the largest and most popular social media platform out there, Facebook would have you believe that it is willing to go the extra mile to support and encourage freedom of speech and individual liberty across the globe. But contrary to its official stand, the richest social networking website, and its founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg now seem to be flip-flopping on the issue just to get back into the Chinese market.
According to a New York Times report, Facebook is creating a software to suppress certain posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic locations. Apparently, the report is based on input from at least “three current and former employees” who chose to remain anonymous as the tool is still confidential.
The NYT sources further stated that the core motive behind developing this tool was to ensure that Facebook can get back into China, the country with the largest number of internet users in the world. China blocked Facebook in 2009, preventing millions of internet users in the country from accessing the website.
However, the report also clarified that the Facebook censorship software is just one among many other projects the company is currently pursuing and may never be implemented.
Zuckerberg reportedly defended the move in an internal meeting saying that Facebook is at least trying to enable conversations even if it is not “full conversation”. The NYT report also states that Facebook does not intend to assume control over what content to allow or restrict in a target region. Instead, it will probably hand over the access to the censorship software to a third-party company.