Google discovered traces of the development of a censored search engine for China

Despite the protests and loss of image, Google continued to develop the Dragonfly search engine for China with censoring features, writes The Intercept magazine, citing sources in the company. The US Senate, human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and many Google employees believe that Dragonfly violates human rights and oppose its launch. The company's management refuses to discuss the project, while officially Dragonfly has never been completely closed.

Signs of work on Dragonfly. Google programmers noticed that the code related to the Maotai and Longfei search apps on Chinese Android and iOS smartphones was changed more than 400 times in January and February 2018, and about 500 times in December 2018. In their opinion, this indicates active work on Dragonfly, since during the development of the search engine, starting in August 2017, the code also changed up to 500 times a month, writes The Intercept. In addition, in the budget of Google, the expense item for the work of 100 employees in the Dragonfly project has been preserved. However, one of The Intercept's sources believes that the code changes are related to summing up the results of the programmers' work done earlier.

Google employees protest. Google employees have been protesting the launch of Dragonfly since August 2018.

More than 1,400 Google employees demanded to declassify the details of the work on the Dragonfly project in the summer of 2018, but Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that "the company is far from launching a search engine in China."
In the fall of 2018, Google employees joined Amnesty International and created a petition on the Google Employees Against Dragonfly blog on Medium. After that, work on the project was frozen.
This year, the Dragonfly project caused the dismissal of at least six experienced engineers and developers, of which two held leadership positions, writes The Intercept.
Software engineer Colin McMillen, who quit in early February after nine years at Google, confirmed to the publication that he left the company because of Dragonfly and "other ethically dubious decisions." He is confident that work on the Chinese search engine continues. “I think in a year or two they will try again,” he says.
Amnesty International also told The Intercept that Google's work has ceased to be transparent and it is possible that the creation of Dragonfly continues.

What is Dragonfly. Dragonfly is Google's censored search engine for China that will filter information based on the demands of the ruling party. Google's rank and file became aware of the project in 2016 when senior executives told engineers that search engine infrastructure in China would depend on a Chinese partner company with data centers in Beijing or Shanghai, and user profiles would be tied to phone numbers. This means that the Chinese government will have access to all data and will be able to identify any user.

Internet censorship in China. In 2010, Google refused to censor search results, and the company has not operated in China since.

The Chinese government has been blocking Google since 2002, and in 2003 launched the so-called "Great Firewall of China" that blocked access to websites. In 2004, Google removed anti-government content from search results.
In 2006, Google launched a Chinese version of the search engine with content filtering and site blocking features, for which it was criticized by the US Congress.
The Chinese government has been tightening censorship requirements year after year. In 2009, it blocked a YouTube video showing police beating protesters in Tibet, and soon disabled some of Google's functionality, and the search engine began to work intermittently.
In 2010, Google accused the Chinese authorities of attacking the gmail accounts of Chinese civil rights activists. After several months of unsuccessful negotiations with the Chinese government, Google shut down its Chinese search service.
However, Google has not left the Chinese market completely. In China, a joint research center for the development of artificial intelligence has been opened, as well as mobile applications are being released and the 265.com link directory purchased in 2008 is operating. According to The Intercept, it is he who is used to develop Dragonfly.

Irina Pankratova