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Google Plans To Launch Censored Search Engine In China, Leaked Documents Reveal (theintercept.com)

Posted by msmash on from the don't-be-evil dept.

Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept reported Wednesday, citing leaked documents and people familiar with the matter. From the report: The project -- code-named Dragonfly -- has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, according to internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans. Teams of programmers and engineers at Google have created a custom Android app, different versions of which have been named "Maotai" and "Longfei." The app has already been demonstrated to the Chinese government; the finalized version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials.

The planned move represents a dramatic shift in Google's policy on China and will mark the first time in almost a decade that the internet giant has operated its search engine in the country. Google's search service cannot currently be accessed by most internet users in China because it is blocked by the country's so-called Great Firewall. The app Google is building for China will comply with the country's strict censorship laws, restricting access to content that Xi Jinping's Communist Party regime deems unfavorable. [...] When a person carries out a search, banned websites will be removed from the first page of results, and a disclaimer will be displayed stating that "some results may have been removed due to statutory requirements." Examples cited in the documents of websites that will be subject to the censorship include those of British news broadcaster BBC and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

8 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Well by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It just goes to show "Do No Evil" was complete and utter media theatre. Google will do anything for the almighty dollar!

    1. Re:Well by r_naked · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It just goes to show "Do No Evil" was complete and utter media theatre. Google will do anything for the almighty dollar!

      Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I am sure that when Larry and Sergey started Google, they had good intentions. I really believe that at the time that wanted to: "Do no evil". However, when the money starts flowing in, and the shareholders demand that the stock price keeps climbing, you start off with: "Well this isn't THAT evil". Eventually you end up with: "Fuck it, remove the slogan and let's conquer the world".

      --
      -- http://anonet.org -- The internet the way it was meant to be. Check it out, you may be surprised.
    2. Re:Well by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The question here I guess is, which is more "evil"? No access, or censored access? I just got back from China, and having to use Bing felt wrong.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    3. Re:Well by DarkOx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Censored hands down! The same can be said with the US-Sino trade relationship. The PRC is an abusive authoritarian regime. It functions and continues to exist because WE allowed it access to the modern world.

      China would be freer today if Nixon had never gone there. The existence of the modern world isn't a secret you can keep. Its not as if people in the USSR did know about the western world. Its not like they were not actively trying to smuggle in goods and information.

      What not allow China to access US networks, not allow China to sell into US markets, not allowing Chinese nationals to attend US universities would do is cripple them economically. Which by now would have turned them into a failed state or let the ROC (having access to purchase US build war machines) to come back in reclaim the mainland.

      Seriously what our society has done is act as a collaborator with regard to Chinese oppression. We got cheap plastic BS and place to dump garbage in exchange for selling out our own industry creating a every expanding wealth gap in our own society and enabling three more generations oppression of the Chinese people. It SUCKS and ITS EVIL

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    4. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      China would be freer today if Nixon had never gone there. The existence of the modern world isn't a secret you can keep. Its not as if people in the USSR did know about the western world. Its not like they were not actively trying to smuggle in goods and information.

      You're assuming that humans will always move towards freedom and democracy, as long as they aren't prevented from doing so by a repressive regime. The post-Soviet history of Russia suggests otherwise, though. Russia did become a free country, with true democracy and free media... and yet, by now it's most of the way back to being a repressive dictatorship. If they were to formally abolish democracy and the freedom of the press at this point, it would be no more than a formality, making official what is in place in reality already. And this whole slide back towards autoritarianism has happened with overwhelming public approval.

  2. Don't be evil by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unless, y'know, a dictatorship requires us to be evil before it'll let us make money.

  3. It is also Censored elsewhere by Gabest · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe. Learn more

  4. Good by thegarbz · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Having a censored Google in China is better than having no Google in China. Censorship is not perfect. Results and information slips through the cracks constantly. By adding a second choice there's a second gap for censored content to slip through. A big foreign owned gap that isn't quite as tightly controlled as the state run gaps.