Once courted by Facebook, China has become the company’s perfect foil

Facebook uses concerns about Chinese tech like TikTok to deflect criticism of its Libra cryptocurrency and the influence of its social network

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Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s annual F8 summit in San Jose, California in May 2018. (Picture: AFP)

Xinmei Shen

Published: 6:37pm, 28 Oct 2019Updated: 6:37pm, 28 Oct 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Thanks to China’s Great Firewall, Chinese tech companies don’t need to worry about competing with cash-flush American tech giants like Facebook at home. But the social media company is sounding the alarm about Chinese tech giants expanding overseas, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now using China as a reason to avoid tighter regulations.

The story of China’s Great Firewall, the world’s most sophisticated censorship system

“While we debate these issues, the rest of the world isn’t waiting,” Zuckerberg said when testifying to Congress about Libra, Facebook’s cryptocurrency project. “China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months.”

Zuckerberg argued that Libra will extend America’s financial leadership, oversight and democratic values around the world, but it’s not guaranteed if the country doesn’t innovate. And Zuckerberg would no doubt prefer that innovation come from Facebook.

After Facebook announced Libra, China said it was working on a digital currency of its own. But China’s central bank governor said that there’s no timetable to launch the digital yuan. It’s also not clear how this would compare to Libra, a proposed cryptocurrency running on blockchain that would be managed by an independent organization.

Another central bank official in China said the country’s new digital currency would resemble Libra, but there’s no indication of how true that will be. Since blockchain doesn’t scale very well, the digital yuan isn’t expected to use blockchain, and it won’t be decentralized as it will be controlled by the central bank.

China has become a favorite punching bag for Facebook recently. As the social networking giant has increasingly become the subject of scrutiny over privacy concerns and the spread of misinformation, controversies surrounding Chinese technology have allowed the US company to deflect.

When TikTok was recently accused of censorship, Zuckerberg was quick to pounce on the information.