Lifestyle See and do

Facebook makes another China play

Written by Ben Blaschke

Facebook’s ongoing quest to win the approval of the Chinese Central Government has reached new heights with reports that the company has developed software that can filter various news reports from appearing on people’s pages based upon their geographical location.

According to a report by The New York Times, who made contact with three current and former Facebook employees, the software has been specifically developed, “to help Facebook get into China, a market where the social network has been blocked.”

If Facebook’s bid is successful, the program would be provided to a partner Chinese company – likely under Government supervision – who would then monitor popular topics and have the ability to deny anything deemed undesirable.

Similar initiatives saw Facebook block around 55,000 pieces of content in 20 countries between July and December 2015, but the new software is said to be more effective because it can prevent content from appearing in news feeds in the first place.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to gain entry into China for years, making repeated visits to the mainland to meet top-ranking officials and even learning Mandarin.