In its attempt to be unbanned in China, Facebook has built a censorship tool that could hide posts about prohibited topics from people in China, according to The New York Times. Instead of censoring posts itself, what Facebook has come up with it to potentially provide the tool to a third-party in China such as a local partner company that could use it to prevent users in China from seeing content that breaks the government’s rules.
The dilemma here is that China could unlock huge amounts of users and ad revenue for Facebook but the censorship tool could also be used to enact human rights abuse. If China could track which local users are trying to protest or bad-mouth the government, they could face persecution.
New York Times reported that several Facebook staffers that worked on the product have left the company. Also, there are no signs that Facebook has offered the tool to Chinese authorities. Details on the specifics of how the tool would work are yet to be made public which suggest that it is one of several ideas Facebook has explored for getting access to China, and they might never be launched.
However, the fact that such tool exists raises concerns about what’s best and safest for Chinese citizens.
“It’s better for Facebook to be a part of enabling conversation, even if it’s not yet the full conversation,” Mark Zuckerberg recently said.
In a statement to TechCrunch, a Facebook spokesperson wrote: “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.”
