The latest sign that Facebook is willing to do business with China is that developed discreetly a tool of censorship that would keep certain posts out of the threads of news to the public, according to the american newspaper The New York Times.
Mark Zuckerberg, ceo of Facebook, has not hidden that you want to unlock the giant social network in the most populous country in the world. He has traveled several times to China; met with the director of propaganda of that country in a visit that occurred a few months ago and received criticism on social networks for “meet the quirks” of the government to jogging in the polluted streets of Beijing without wearing a mask. Even studying mandarin.
Now, it seems that his company developed a software that prevents certain publications to appear in the threads of news from the users of certain geographical regions, maneuver specifically focused to help the company to enter China, according to the report of the New York Times in which it cited employees and former of Facebook.
A spokesperson for Facebook did not deny the report and said only that the company “has not taken any decision with regard to their approach to China.”
“we have long said that we are interested in China and we are dedicating time to understand and learn more about the country,” he said.
The report was released at a delicate time for Facebook. Zuckerberg insists that they do not want to do it in editor, but recently announced that it plans to stop sharing fake news on Facebook, even though days before he had minimized that problem.
analysts say that the us giant of the technology would have a lot to lose if you make a commitment to China, a country in which other large internet platforms, like Twitter and Google, are also blocked.
For a start, it is unlikely that censorship alone will not be enough. It is likely that Facebook has to give you access to the chinese government to their servers to allow you to enter the country, according to Qiao Mu, a professor of Communication at the University of Beijing Foreign Studies.
“you Have a deal with a monster,” said Qiao.
Facebook would have to comply with the strict legal requirements of the chinese government regarding the delivery of the user information to the authorities. Some u.s. companies have criticized the new law for cyber-security of China and they warn that the need to share information could expose the personal data.
The creation of a program of censorship to appease China could also undermine the confidence of the users of other countries.
“you Can question the ethics of the company, if that is what you are doing in China… can be no doubt about what they are doing with my content,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a firm of market research with headquarters in Beijing.
To put that tool in operation in China, Facebook could be under pressure from other governments in the world to implement it in other parts.
Although Facebook do enough to satisfy the chinese government, would have to overcome major obstacles of competitiveness.
Some sites identical to Facebook like Renren and Kaixin, passed as fashionable in China. Now, the key sites are WeChat and Weibo, social networking extremely popular feature with hundreds of millions of users.
In theory, Facebook, the largest social network in the world, could give the chinese users the possibility to enter in contact with people from all over the world. WeChat and Weibo have not been able to replicate its success outside of China.
however, internet users really want to enter in Facebook can now do so through a virtual private network (VPN, for its acronym in English), which allows them to circumvent the massive apparatus of censorship, which is known as the Great Firewall of China.
“I don’t think that people even care,” said Natkin, who summed up the reaction of many people in china in the following way: “Since you came to China, good for you. Anyway I’m not going to use you”.
Sherisse Pham
Source: CNNMoney
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