Google is working with China on a censored search engine known as Project Dragonfly

Greg S

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Through the looking glass: Google has had several run-ins with the Chinese government and is finally caving to demands for a heavily restricted search engine. Project Dragonfly by Google is a custom censored search engine that makes oppression easier than ever before.

China has some of the harshest laws that tech companies must comply with or face being banned from operating in the country. Google has been making a series of strategic investments into Chinese businesses as a way to indirectly gain access to one of the world's largest markets, but now may be taking a more direct approach.

Arriving under codename Dragonfly, Google is believed to be working on a search engine specifically for China that will be heavily censored. Search results will not include links to sites focusing on democracy, religion, human rights, or protests in addition to an array of other forbidden topics. Notable banned websites include BBC News and Wikipedia.

Any search terms or site that goes against the views of Chinese officials is subject to being removed from search results.

Two custom Android apps have already been created and demonstrated to the Chinese government under names Maotai and Longfei. A launch within the next six to nine months is expected contingent upon government approval.

Google has been heavily restricted in China since 2010. The Great Firewall has been used to completely block access to Google Search across the country except in Hong Kong, which operates as an independent region and is not subject to the same censorship laws.

According to the source that leaked internal documents about project Dragonfly, only a few hundred people at Google previously knew about the censored search engine being created. Whether or not tech companies should enable censorship and the following oppression of a nation's people is open to debate.

It certainly makes financial sense for Google to want a piece of the Chinese market in a more direct fashion, but its previous policy of "Don't Be Evil" may have been completely forgotten for this project. At just over 750 million internet users, China itself is nearly as valuable as all of Europe.

When Google pulled out of China in 2010, co-founder Sergey Brin voiced strong objections to any form of censorship having been born in the Soviet Union. Knowing the personal effects that censorship can leave behind, Brin hoped to see a "more open internet," instead of allowing information to be withheld.

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+1 for all the comments so far. This is absolutely about the money and f the human rights of the Chinese citizens oppressed by their government. Profit at all costs - and gagme absolutely cannot take the high road with this.
 
Google censors everywhere, if the truth be told. Public sentiments, the public's current obsessions, demand it. The Chinese people are fairly sanguine about their censorship, from what I hear. Chinese culture is different from Western culture.

I'm not defending China. But, bear in mind that the diversity of viewpoints and websites in top search results in Google U.S. is declining, and not all the downplayed viewpoints and websites are fake news. This is something to be concerned about.
 
Quote by @Greg S.... " Notable banned websites include BBC News and Wikipedia."

IMHO, the internet is practically worthless without BBC News & Wikipedia, particularly Wikipedia.:(

Oh, and lest I forget, Techspot as well....;)(y)
 
Breaking China financially is a good way to possibly turn them around. Then again, it might lead to a hot mess. No one is fooled by Google. They are a leftist company and practice censorship worldwide.
 
The Chinese people are fairly sanguine about their censorship, from what I hear..

Maybe because most internet users in China use VPNs, among other means, to circumvent the censorship anyway. It's not a big deal if you know it's happening and know how to avoid it, which they do.
 
Breaking China financially is a good way to possibly turn them around. Then again, it might lead to a hot mess. No one is fooled by Google. They are a leftist company and practice censorship worldwide.
And the wise leftist will barely, if ever, use them.

Personally, I think gagme is worse than politically oriented. IMO, they have a god complex, and god complexes know no political bounds.
 
Sounds like there is blowback starting on this. We'll see where the voice of public opinion takes gagme this time...
 
So who can you use besides Google for searches that doesn't support Chinese censorship? I am so tired of these tech companies talking out both sides of their mouth and deciding money is more important to them than the principles by which they pretend to live.
 
This partnership will be turned to crypto exchange, or may be it's already has some insides related to crypto.
 
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