Google Is Developing A Censored Search Engine For China, Employees Reveal

A protest is brewing within Google for its reported censored search engine for China despite denying it in public that it has no such plans.

That the project is alive has been attested by the internal investigation conducted by the tech giant’s own staff, reports The Intercept.

Codenamed “Project Dragonfly”, the China-centric search engine was set for release in April 2019.

But bowing to firm opposition for the project on China, Google communicated to the teams that the project may be shelved and they would be redistributed to different projects.

The move to abandon the project came after external political and internal pressure from the staff who raised ethical issues over supporting censorship and oppression of opinion.

In his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee in December, CEO Sundar Pichai had denied any plans for a China search engine while keeping mum on the probability of its future release.

A Google spokesperson had also clarified that it has no plans to launch a search engine in China and all concerned teams have been dispersed to new projects.

Google’s reversal of the stand

However, Google executives including CEO Sundar Pichai have not stated that the censored search engine project has been buried forever.

In fact, Google’s new China project marks a complete U-turn from its earlier stand in 2010 when it halted a China search engine work.

That time Google co-founder Sergey Brin declared that he wanted to show the company is opposed to censorship and honors the freedom of political dissent.

Code development found

Google’s secret plans were unearthed by own staff, according to the scoop by The Intercept. It says Google employees were surprised to find the code associated with DragonFly. They stumbled upon a massive cluster of code on Google’s computers linked to Dragonfly.

What they found was for two search apps —Maotai and Longfei for Chinese users handling Android and iOS mobile devices.

The report said there had been 500 changes to the code in December and 400 more between January and February this year. That was a clear indication that work is going on in Dragonfly.

The employees believe at least 100 workers are active on Dragonfly and company still runs a budget for the project.

“I just don’t know where the leadership is coming from anymore,” said an insider source.

The detection of code for DragonFly has stoked much anger inside Google as the China search engine project ignores righteous protests and censors information on human rights, religion, democracy, and peaceful protest.

Pichai’s special interest

Many believe, Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO is the real force behind the censored China search project. He sees the project as a viable way to leverage the commercial potential of China’s 800 million-plus internet users. The CEO is waiting for the dust to settle and restart the China search project all over again.

Meanwhile, Anna Bacciarelli, an official with Amnesty International urged Google “to publicly confirm” that it has dropped Dragonfly forever.

Anne said Amnesty’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo personally visited Google’s Mountain View office in California to express concerns over Dragonfly and “the disregard for transparency and accountability in the project.” Google is yet to react to the report.