Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine, the Intercept said on Wednesday.
Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine, the Intercept said on Wednesday.
The Chinese version of the site will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal.
The project – codenamed 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.
Depending on when the Chinese government approves the ‘toned down’ Google, the app could launch anytime in the next 6-9 months.
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.
Last year, Google said that its second innings will resolve around Artificial Intelligence.
"China is a tremendous opportunity for any company because it is by far the single largest homogeneous market," said Kai Fu Lee, who headed Google’s China operations before the company left in 2010. The market dwarfs any other, given how many Chinese people are online, and data from that "can be used to advance products, especially those relating to artificial intelligence," person close to the development said.
Google in 2010, pulled back its search engine and many other relevant services from the country over government censorship. However, it tried many times to re-enter the market with other services but all attempts were in vain.
Last year, Sundar Pichai also acknowledged that the company is keen to make a mark in Chinese market. "I’m committed to engaging more in China," he said.
"We’ll thoughtfully figure out how to engage deeper, and I don’t know what the answers are," he added.
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