Google scrambled to get employees to delete internal memo detailing plans for censored search in China, says report
Google scrambled to delete an internal memo circulating among employees with details about its proposed censored search app for China that showed that plans were farther along than company executives had previously indicated, The Intercept reports.
The memo, written by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the product, started circulating earlier this month, before human resources contacted employees believed to have read or saved it, and told them to immediately delete any copies. The document reportedly highlighted that information about the project on internal company networks seemed to contradict recent comments from Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
"We are not close to launching a search product in China and whether we would do so or could so so is all very unclear," Pichai said at an internal all-hands meeting in mid-August, according to a transcript obtained by CNBC. "But the team has been in an exploration stage for quite a while now, and I think they are exploring many options."
However, the memo indicated that employees working on the project were told in late July to prepare to get it in "launch-ready state" to roll out upon approval from Beijing officials, according to The Intercept.
Google initially withdrew its search service from China in 2010 due to increased concerns about censorship and cyber attacks, subsequently losing access to the enormous market of 772 million internet users there. The new censored search app, first revealed by The Intercept, would remove content that the Chinese government ruled sensitive and would link users' searches to their personal phone numbers.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/21/goo...lete-memo-about-china-search-plan-report.html
Google has been condemned for supporting state censorship following reports that it is working on a mobile search app that would block certain search terms and allow it to reenter the Chinese market.
The California-based internet company has engineers designing search software that would leave out content blacklisted by the Chinese government, according to a New York Times report citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter. Such blacklisting would allow the company to reverse its move out of the country eight years ago due to censorship and hacking.
The Intercept news website first reported the story, saying the Chinese search app was being tailored for the Google-backed Android operating system for mobile devices. The service was said to have been shown to Chinese officials.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. The state-owned China Securities Daily, citing information from “relevant departments”, denied the report.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/02/google-working-on-censored-search-engine-for-china
Google is experiencing a “moral and ethical” crisis. That’s the view of hundreds of employees at the tech company, who are protesting the development of a censored search engine for internet users in China.
About 1,400 Google employees — out of the more than 88,000 — signed a letter to company executives this week, seeking more details and transparency about the project and demanding employee input in decisions about what kind of work Google takes on. They also expressed concern that the company is violating its own ethical principles.
“Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by the Intercept and the New York Times.
The existence of the censored search tool — dubbed Dragonfly — was revealed earlier this month by the Intercept, sparking outcry within the company’s ranks and drawing harsh criticism from human rights groups across the world. Internal documents leaked to journalists described how the app-based search platform could block internet users in China from seeing web pages that discuss human rights, peaceful protests, democracy and other topics blacklisted by China’s authoritarian government.
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/17/17704526/google-dragonfly-censored-search-engine-china
it is ironic and funny how the loudest supporters of "net nuetrality" have no problems with censorship
Google scrambled to delete an internal memo circulating among employees with details about its proposed censored search app for China that showed that plans were farther along than company executives had previously indicated, The Intercept reports.
The memo, written by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the product, started circulating earlier this month, before human resources contacted employees believed to have read or saved it, and told them to immediately delete any copies. The document reportedly highlighted that information about the project on internal company networks seemed to contradict recent comments from Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
"We are not close to launching a search product in China and whether we would do so or could so so is all very unclear," Pichai said at an internal all-hands meeting in mid-August, according to a transcript obtained by CNBC. "But the team has been in an exploration stage for quite a while now, and I think they are exploring many options."
However, the memo indicated that employees working on the project were told in late July to prepare to get it in "launch-ready state" to roll out upon approval from Beijing officials, according to The Intercept.
Google initially withdrew its search service from China in 2010 due to increased concerns about censorship and cyber attacks, subsequently losing access to the enormous market of 772 million internet users there. The new censored search app, first revealed by The Intercept, would remove content that the Chinese government ruled sensitive and would link users' searches to their personal phone numbers.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/21/goo...lete-memo-about-china-search-plan-report.html
Google has been condemned for supporting state censorship following reports that it is working on a mobile search app that would block certain search terms and allow it to reenter the Chinese market.
The California-based internet company has engineers designing search software that would leave out content blacklisted by the Chinese government, according to a New York Times report citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter. Such blacklisting would allow the company to reverse its move out of the country eight years ago due to censorship and hacking.
The Intercept news website first reported the story, saying the Chinese search app was being tailored for the Google-backed Android operating system for mobile devices. The service was said to have been shown to Chinese officials.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. The state-owned China Securities Daily, citing information from “relevant departments”, denied the report.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/02/google-working-on-censored-search-engine-for-china
Google is experiencing a “moral and ethical” crisis. That’s the view of hundreds of employees at the tech company, who are protesting the development of a censored search engine for internet users in China.
About 1,400 Google employees — out of the more than 88,000 — signed a letter to company executives this week, seeking more details and transparency about the project and demanding employee input in decisions about what kind of work Google takes on. They also expressed concern that the company is violating its own ethical principles.
“Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by the Intercept and the New York Times.
The existence of the censored search tool — dubbed Dragonfly — was revealed earlier this month by the Intercept, sparking outcry within the company’s ranks and drawing harsh criticism from human rights groups across the world. Internal documents leaked to journalists described how the app-based search platform could block internet users in China from seeing web pages that discuss human rights, peaceful protests, democracy and other topics blacklisted by China’s authoritarian government.
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/17/17704526/google-dragonfly-censored-search-engine-china
it is ironic and funny how the loudest supporters of "net nuetrality" have no problems with censorship
