Internet giants Facebook are developing a censorship tool which could grant them access to the Chinese market.
China closed its doors to Facebook in 2009, making their 1.3 billion population inaccessible to Mark Zuckerburg’s international social media platform.
Now, Facebook may be giving in to China’s strict censorship laws to gain access to their immense population and market.
The internet giant has developed a software which suppresses posts that are deemed offensive by third parties from appearing on users’ newsfeed. The software tool is aimed to grant Facebook access to the Chinese market.
“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,” a Facebook spokeswoman said.
Facebook has suppressed content in the past too for a number of countries, including Pakistan, Russia and Turkey. Between July and December 2015, Facebook actively blocked 55,000 pieces of content globally. However, the company will not be directly
However, the company will not be directly involved in the censorship process and will instead outsource the capability to third parties who have control over what content appears on people’s news feed.
