Facebook’s Culture Clash

Facebook’s goal is to connect the whole world, but how can it achieve its goal if 1 billion people are excluded.  Government officials in China still won’t allow Facebook to operate in China.  Chinese officials have seen the riots assisted by Facebook in Egypt and Tunisia and want to prevent the flow and freedom of information.  How can Facebook operate on its platform of freely exchanging information, if the information shared on the site would be censored?  Also, Facebook users are supposed to register with their real names and identities.  However, if you were a user in China, wouldn’t you be terrified to register with your real name and be held accountable for something that you posted?  Facebook is trying to partner with Baidu, China’s most popular search engine with good governmental relations, to help shield itself against censorship. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future?  Will China ever be ready to be facebooked? 

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/tech-biz/Clashing+values+could+trip+Facebook+tiptoes+toward+China/5095325/story.html