Amid the crisis facing Facebook over fake news circulating on its platform, it has come to light that the company has secretly developed a tool to suppress messages that appear in users' feeds in specific geographic regions, according to the New York Times.
The tool is said to have been developed with the blessings of CEO Mark Zuckerberg to help the social network platform gain acceptance in China, where Facebook has been blocked since 2009.
Facebook has reportedly developed a tool for use by third parties, such as local businesses and the Chinese government. These businesses (and the government) will have full control over what appears in users' feeds on the social network.
The NYT reports that development of this feature began last year, and engineers within the company have created different teams led by Vaughan Smith, Facebook's vice president of corporate and business development.
Internally, the tool isn't exactly a secret. Employees asked Zuckerberg to tell them about it during one of the company's regular Q&A sessions in July. The CEO of the largest social network responded at the time:
“It’s better for Facebook to be a place that allows for conversations, even if the conversation isn’t complete.”
Although Facebook doesn't like to call itself a media company, it's very difficult for people to accept it:
About eight in ten Americans use Facebook, and about two-thirds of the social network's members read news from the platform.
The revelation of a secret censorship tool in Facebook's upcoming projects will surely lead to bigger problems. It seems that Facebook executives, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are so blinded by their desire to conquer the world that they are willing to ignore basic ethical principles.
