Facebook ‘made China censorship tool’

Facebook worked on special software so it could potentially accommodate censorship demands in China.

The social network refused to confirm or deny the software’s existence, but said in a statement it was “spending time understanding and learning more” about China. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group which campaigns for better privacy online, told the BBC the project sounded “extremely disturbing”.

Censorship concessions

Since 2009, the only way to access Facebook in China has been via a virtual private network software designed to “spoof” your real location and avoid local internet restrictions.

Facebook, which has 1.8 billion active users, is aggressively looking to expand in parts of the world beyond its existing markets.

And in China, it appears the site is at the very least considering making concessions to China’s notoriously tightly-monitored internet.

According to employees quoted anonymously by the New York Times’ reporter Mike Isaac, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was questioned about the plans in an all-staff meeting earlier this summer.

“It’s better for Facebook to be a part of enabling conversation, even if it’s not yet the full conversation,” he is reported to have said while stressing it was early days.

Mr Zuckerberg recently spent time with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as well as taking time to learn Mandarin.

 

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flickr photo by Sarah.Marshall https://flickr.com/photos/sarahmarshall/8408366593 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license