After employees petitioned this year, Google announced it would not renew a project to help the U.S. military develop artificial intelligence technology for drones.
Google's plan to launch a censored search engine in China requires more "transparency, oversight and accountability," hundreds of employees at the Alphabet Inc unit said in an internal petition seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Hoping to gain approval from the Chinese government to provide a mobile search service, the company plans to block some websites and search terms, Reuters reported this month, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Disclosure of the secretive effort has disturbed some Google employees and human rights advocacy organizations. They are concerned that by agreeing to censorship demands,
Google would validate China's prohibitions on free expression and violate the "don't be evil" clause in the company's code of conduct.
After employees petitioned this year, Google announced it would not renew a project to help the U.S. military develop artificial intelligence technology for drones.
The latest petition says employees are concerned the China project, codenamed Dragonfly, "makes clear" that ethics principles Google issued during the drone debate "are not enough."
"We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we're building," the document seen by Reuters states.
The New York Times first reported the petition on Thursday. Google spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Meanwhile, putting to rest the rumours of Google rolling out a customised version of its popular search engine service in China, CEO Sundar Pichai clarified that the company is not close to launching a search product.
However, Pichai did hint at doing more in the country which is infamous for its restrictive internet policies.
Pichai's comments follow reports about Google building a custom-version of its search engine to abide by the Chinese rules and deliver censored search results, Cnet reported.
According to the report, the secretive project, codenamed Dragonfly, led to a protest by 1,000 Google employees who objected to the company's efforts at supporting the restrictive, state-sponsored censorship.
Although Pichai has dismissed reports about not being 'close to' launching the search engine, there have been confirmed reports about Google actually working on a censored version.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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