{"id":270879,"date":"2016-11-23T05:55:58","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T05:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=270879"},"modified":"2016-11-23T05:55:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T05:55:58","slug":"facebook-made-china-censorship-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/11\/facebook-made-china-censorship-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook ‘made China censorship tool’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Facebook worked on special software so it could potentially accommodate censorship demands in China, according to a report in the New York Times.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
No decisions about the company’s approach in the country had yet been made, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group which campaigns for better privacy online, told the BBC the project sounded “extremely disturbing”.<\/p>\n
“Kudos to the Facebook employees who bought this to the attention of the New York Times,” said the EFF’s global policy analyst Eva Galperin.<\/p>\n
“It’s very nice to know there are some principled people still working there.”<\/p>\n
The sources quoted by the New York Times – both current and former employees – stressed that like many pieces of software worked on internally, it may never be implemented.<\/p>\n
Censorship concessions<\/strong><\/p>\n Since 2009, the only way to access Facebook in China has been via a virtual private network – software designed to \u201cspoof\u201d your real location and avoid local internet restrictions.<\/p>\n Facebook, which has 1.8 billion active users, is aggressively looking to expand in parts of the world beyond its existing markets.<\/p>\n In the developing world, that means experimenting with new technology to connect rural areas.<\/p>\n