Facebook quietly created a censorship tool that blocks posts from appearing in the news feed of users located in specific countries in order to make inroads into China, the New York Times quoted current and former employees as saying.

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009 due to the government’s strict policies around censorship of user content, which has also blocked services like Google and Twitter.

China has since tightened its controls over the internet under President Xi Jingping.

Facebook has made it clear in the past it wants its service accessible to as many people in the world as possible. It has worked on drones that can bring the internet, and Facebook, to areas with poor connectivity, and made versions of its app that can work with slow bandwidth. It is no surprise that it wants an entry way into the world’s most populous country.

A Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement that the tech giant has “long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country.” However, she added that no decisions had been made on its approach into China.

According to the NYT report, Facebook will likely have to partner with a local company who will choose what to censor. They will also have local experience and may be able to leverage government contacts.

Tool may never actually be used

The report noted that this censorship tool “may never see the light of day” much like other internal experiments, but added that either way it shows a willingness on the part of Facebook to compromise its core mission statements: to make the world more open and connected.

Facebook blocked some 55,000 pieces of content in 20 countries between July and December 2015, its most recent figures.

The project was led by Vaughan Smith, vice president for mobile, corporate and business development at Facebook. The code can be seen by engineers inside the company, but it has never been used and there is no indication that Facebook has offered it to Chinese authorities.

Over the summer, several Facebook employees working on the tool left the company.

“It’s better for Facebook to be a part of enabling conversation, even if it’s not yet the full conversation,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told staff when asked about the tool earlier in the year.

Allowing a censorship tool to be used China could lead to demands to suppress content from other countries, the report warned.

Facebook and Chinese officials have held several talks in the last few years and Facebook currently sells advertising for some Chinese businesses from its Hong Kong office.