Facebook Undermines US Values by Creating China Censorship Tool - Congressman

A plan by US-based Facebook to develop a censorship tool that would enable the social-media company to return to the Chinese market sacrifices American values, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A post to Engel’s Twitter account stated: "Concerned that Facebook may be willing to compromise values for market access in China. US companies should set highest standard."

Earlier in the day, the New York Times reported that software being developed by Facebook would make some posts to its network invisible to users in certain geographic areas. In China, Facebook itself wouldn’t make decisions on such posts, but the company intends to authorize a Chinese company to monitor “trending” posts to determine if they should be hidden from view, the Times cited current and former employees as saying.

Engel, who represents parts of New York City and its suburbs in Congress, called “values” the greatest export of the United States. "US companies should set highest standard," he added.

Facebook, Twitter and other Western social media companies, as well as search giant Google, are blocked in China due to their refusal to acquiesce to government demands to censor information on their platforms.