In the face of the crisis faced by Facebook because of the fact that fake news is being circulated on its platform, it is to come to light that the company has secretly developed a tool to suppress messages appearing in users' feeds in specific geographic areas, according to New York Times.
The tool is said to have been developed with CEO Mark's blessings Zuckerberg to help the acceptance of the social network platform in China, where Facebook has been blocked since 2009.
So Facebook reportedly developed a tool for use by third parties, such as local ones businesses and its government China. These businesses (and the government) will have complete control over what appears in the feeds of users of the social network.
The NYT reports that the development of this feature began last year, and technicians within the company have created different teams led by Vaughan Smith, vice president of facebook in the corporate and business development division.
Internally, the tool is not exactly secret. Employees asked Zuckerberg to tell them about it at one of the company's regular Q&A sessions in July. The CEO of the largest social network then replied:
"It's better for Facebook to be a place to chat, even if the conversation is not complete."
Despite the fact that Facebook does not want to call itself business media, it is very difficult for people to accept it:
About eight out of ten Americans use Facebook, and about two-thirds of social network members are reading news from the platform.
The disclosure of a secret censorship tool to the projects that makes Facebook will surely lead to greater problems. It seems that Facebook executives with CEO Mark Zuckerberg are so blinded by their desire to conquer the world, who are willing to ignore basic ethical principles.
