Social networking giant Facebook has secretly developed a new software tool that might just help the company in getting a re-entry in China, the world's largest internet market. The world's most popular social networking site has been facing a ban in China for nearly seven years owing to strict censorship law.

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New York Times, citing close sources, reported that Facebook's new software helps in suppressing posts from appearing in people's news feeds from appearing in specific geographic location. The report goes on to claim that the social networking company may hire a third party - preferably a Chinese firm - to operate the software.

It must be noted that the social networking giant regularly removes or blocks contents in various countries to comply with the censorship laws of the respective government. Pakistan, Russia, and Turkey are some of the countries where social networking company has followed this practice.

However, the new software will take censorship to a whole new level, since it prevents posts and contents from appearing in news feed beforehand. This invariably makes 'blocking' and 'removing' the content irrelevant.

Facebook's spokeswoman Arielle Aryah did not confirm and deny the report.

"We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country," Arielle Aryah said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The software tool will be seen as a latest ploy by Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg to woo the Chinese leadership. In a bid to pacify them, Zuckerberg has made several visits to the mainland in recent years. The self-made billionaire's desperation was quite visible earlier this year when he wished Chinese people in mandarin language on the eve of Chinese New Year.

However, Facebook is not the only tech giant that is trying to woo China. Google Inc, the American search giant, has also expressed its wish to seek a re-entry in the lucrative Chinese market. The search giant closed its operation in China in 2010, apparently owing to tough censorship laws.

Analysts say that American tech companies have no option but to accept China's tough censorship laws, as Chinese market is simply too big to ignore.       

TagsFacebook, facebook china, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg China, China Internet Censorship