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China Facebook

As Obama visits Facebook in California, trouble brews in DC about hints of sucking up to China

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

April 20, 2011 | 2 min read

Obama really likes Facebook. He's at company HQ in California today and founder Zuckerberg was an honoured guests at a presidential dinner in San Francisco last month. But big trouble is brewing over the network's plans for China.

The big question: How will Facebook handle its role as a global public square for dissidents if it enters China and other countries with little tolerance for dissent. (See the video below).

The government in China has been cracking down on dissidents- in response to the uprisings in the Middle East, spurred on by social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Facebook officials in Washington suggested the company might be willing to play by China's rules — a stance that could raise hackles in Congress.

With Facebook talking to potential Chinese partners "Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others," Adam Conner, a Facebook lobbyist, told the Journal. "We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we're allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven't experienced it before," he said.

Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate's human- rights panel, did not mince his words. "Blocking content in some countries— but not others—would deeply damage Facebook's brand and raise troubling questions about its commitment to human rights and Internet freedom," he said.

GIBBS DEAL SUNK BY LEAK?

Meanwhile, talks to hire former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs to guide Facebook's communications strategy - including with Washington where the network still has a lightweight presence - are understood to have broken down following a media leak that made the deal sound imminent.

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