Facebook develops its own tools of censorship to conquer the chinese market – The Figaro

The social network, censored in China since 2009, could have found the parade to conquer the 720 million chinese internet users.

Facebook curve the spine. To open its network to 720 million chinese internet users and comply with the prerogatives of the government, the company has created a tool that is able to censor systematically, quickly and without any control of the contents published on its platform in certain geographic areas, says Tuesday the New York Times. In this case, Facebook wouldn’t censor himself, but déléguerait this task to a third party. The sources of the New York Times have cautioned, however, that it was a part of several ideas being considered to enable Facebook to return to China. Such an initiative could never be implemented.

“We have not yet made a decision on our approach in China,” says a spokesperson of the company, in an email to AFP. “Our goal is to help businesses and developers in china to conquer new markets outside of China by using our advertising platform”.

Faceook has been banned since 2009 in China, where the authorities have a policy of favouring national champions to the detriment of the services of the giants of the Web americans. The first social network the world has to practice to respect local laws and to respond to requests that it deems legitimate for governments to block certain information after their publication. In the second half of 2015, Facebook has restricted access to content in Pakistan, accused of violating the local laws on blasphemy, or in Russia because they were violating the “integrity of the Russian Federation and the local laws that prohibit activities such as riots, public mass and the promotion and sale of drugs.”

In China, the group would be ready to do a obstacle in addition to one of its fundamental principles: “allow everyone to express themselves, which means letting people share what they want, as long as possible”, as explained by Mark Zuckerberg last week, about the dissemination of false information on Facebook. The initiative follows a series of efforts by Mark Zuckerberg in conquering the promising chinese market, which represents more than 20% of the number registered on its network at the present time. Between learning mandarin, meeting with president Xi Jinping and deference to the chinese leadership, the CEO of Facebook has made feet and hands to expand the scope of its network.

The censorship of its network in China does not prevent Facebook from knowing a certain success with national advertisers, who buy advertising inserts to attract foreign customers. The company rents since 2014 offices in the city centre of Beijing, without having obtained permission to hire its first employees chinese, notes Bloomberg. The chinese media also use the platform to distribute their content in English and the president Xi Jinping himself is present on Facebook through its official page.

China remains a headache for the giants of the Web and Facebook would not be the first network to bend to the wishes of the national government. Google has practiced self-censorship until 2010, before leaving the country. e network would not be the first to access the wills of the chinese: up until 2010, Google was practicing self-censorship, before leaving the country.