Google Has Built a Censored China Search Engine – Info Gadgets

Facebook, Microsoft and Google have all taken ethical liberties in the pursuit of gaining traction in China. However, the latest round for Google really is shocking. Tech companies have in recent times shown that profits count more than online human rights, where the bottom line means they are willing to serve the Chinese Government if it can foster future revenue.

While China denies it, 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 reveals. Google was already widely criticized for contributing to autonomous killing machines with its partnership with the Pentagon, but this sounds far worse at a time when the U.S. is retaliating against China’s corporate espionage with trade tariffs. The Government is doing one thing, but the Tech companies have been doing quite another.

Sundar Pichai has a Dragonfly is his back Pocket

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. In an age of data harvesting, it’s increasingly looking like the Chinese Government might have the last say in the direction of technologies such as facial recognition, citizenship digital ID and censorship that favors its regime.

Rise of Pervasive Censorship Online Seems to be Imminent

• 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.
• Facebook, Google and even Microsoft have long created products with in-built censorship tools to try to appease the Chinese Government into letting them into China. Apple itself reached the $1 Trillion mark largely due to its success in China with its iPhones.
• Just a few hundred of Google’s massive 88,000-strong workforce had been briefed on the project prior to the revelations. There are some reports that’s it’s created yet another “uproar” inside of Google. Technology employees seem to be the last ethical lines of leadership, with little to no regulation from the U.S. Government on these matters.

Human rights groups have expressed concern over the reports about software that would leave out blacklisted content. However if anything the Chinese Government has ramped up its efforts to squash anti-Government dissidence and take online censorship extremely seriously.

It’s extremely distressing to hear that Google has chosen to go this route. It displays the kind of moral ambiguity in capitalism in 2018, as Silicon Valley struggles with the realization that China really is the next super-power in technology, artificial intelligence and the next era of a technological dynasty. The New York Times has verified the story.

Indeed Google’s return to China means their censored search engine for China will filter websites and search terms that are blacklisted by the Chinese government, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. While Huawei is banned in the U.S., American tech giants are trying the full gambit of tricks to get into China.

In early 2010, Google shut down its search engine in mainland China after rows over censorship and hacking. How quickly things do change: Google’s new leadership appears to have fewer moral problems with finding clients that could have dire long-term consequences on the future of freedom of information, and Google’s commitment to “doing the right thing” certainly appears on shaky ground. With the controversy Facebook has been under, Alphabet probably thinks it can get away with anything at this point.

American tech companies trying to tailor their products to enter the huge Chinese market is nothing new; LinkedIn, which belongs to Microsoft, censors its content. Beijing’s control is increasing in Australia, Africa and with significant 5G projects in Europe. Chinese nationals are students in many of the top universities in North America. China’s rise as the dominant economy of the world now appears unstoppable. Even Google is bowing to what five years ago seemed unthinkable.

However when you back drones that are autonomous killing machines or censorship where human rights and the freedom to know are methodically stripped from search, you get into dangerous territory. Google has shown in 2018, it simply cannot be trusted. The last line of conscience for Google, quite pathetically, may be Google’s own employees.

What’s even more ironic is Alphabet’s motto is “do the right thing.” I on the other hand would bring back the old one, “don’t be evil”. 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. But Capitalism can always find workarounds — just don’t expect Google Home to tell you the truth in the future.