Google's search engine development with search function for censorship to China ceased receiving voice of protests

An internal accusation revealed that Google was developing a search engine with censorship function for China, and not only Google employees, but also voices calling for development from the human rights groups around the world and the US Vice President caught up It was. According to Intercept who is getting information from the two people who are familiar with this plan, the project which had been conflicting between going on and off of development between Google and employees will eventually go to "stop" The rudder seems to be cut off.

Google's Secret China Project "Effectively Ended" After Fight
https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/google-china-censored-search-engine-2/

It was reported earlier in August 2018 that Google is developing a search engine with censorship function for China, known as "Dragonfly". The first thing I reported was also the international intercept Intercept, which was revealed by internal accusations from inside Google. According to a whistle blower, Dragonfly was designed to block information that belongs to a broad category related to democratization according to the strict censorship requirements of the Chinese Communist government.

Google found out that it was developing a search engine with censorship function for China - GIGAZINE

Google acquired Chinese website directory service "265.com" who self-named "the most used home page in China" from 2008 Chinese entrepreneur Cai Wensheng in 2008. 265.com provides information on cheap flights and hotels for Chinese as well as news on financial markets, astrology and advertisement, as well as the ability to search websites, images and videos. However, since Google's search engine service is not available in China, the search query entered by users at 265.com was in the state of being transferred to Baidu, Google's biggest competitor in China, Google seems to have obtained information before the search query was transferred and utilized it for market research in China.

The data gathered at 265.com is said to have helped not only to learn what Chinese people are searching for but also to build Dragonfly's prototype. Engineers used the sample query from 265.com and confirmed the same word or phrase "a website that will be displayed in China if you enter Google." Then use a tool called "Beacon Tower" to check what kind of website Dragonfly will block from Google search results. Through this process, it seems that engineers have continued to adjust so that links to websites prohibited in China will not be displayed.

However, because normal companies can violate the privacy of users, severe constraints are placed on analyzing users' search queries. However, Google's Dragonfly development team was only informed of the API to access 265.com's data, and I was not told how the data was gathered. That's why Google's employees, including the development team, have raised protests and eventually it seems that 265.com data can no longer be used.

A Googler who is sending information to Intercept said, "The data at 265.com was essential to Dragonfly's development, and development is stopped now because data access is frozen." Actually, as a result of inability to access 265.com data, Dragonfly's development team is told to use different datasets. This data set is not a search query collected from the mainland of China but a collection and analysis of "Chinese search queries" searched by Google on people living in the United States and Malaysia, so "Dragonfly development team searches It is practically impossible to refine the accuracy of the results, "Intercept wrote. In addition, some groups of Google engineers are completely out of the development of Dragonfly and it seems that they are transitioning to projects related to India, Indonesia, Russia, the Middle East and Brazil.

In November 2018 a statement was also issued that more than 200 Google employees should stop developing Dragonfly.

More than 200 Google employees announced a statement to stop developing search engine with censored for China - GIGAZINE

In addition, Google's Sundar Pichai CEO told a testimony at a hearing of the American House Judiciary Committee on December 11, 2018 and said, "There is no plan to start a search business in China at the present time, We have not denied the possibility of future business expansion in China. Initially, Google aimed to start Dragonfly's service from January to April 2019.