INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image caption
Google's plans for a Chinese search engine have reportedly halted
Google has reportedly
"effectively ended" plans for a censored search engine in China.The Intercept, which revealed the existence of Project Dragonfly in August,
says Google has been "forced to shut down a data analysis system it was using" to feed the project.And access to data "integral to Dragonfly
has been suspended for now, which has stopped progress".Google said it had no immediate plans to launch a Chinese search engine.Image
copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Google has faced protests about the search engine it was working on for China
What is The Intercept reportingCiting internal Google documents and inside sources, the Intercept says Project Dragonfly began in
the spring of 2017 and accelerated in December after Google's chief executive, Sundar Pichai, met a Chinese government official, An Android
app with versions called Maotai and Longfei were developed and could be launched within nine months if Chinese government approved, it
says.Using a tool called BeaconTower to check if users' search queries on Beijing-based website 265.com would fall foul of China's censors,
Google engineers came up with a list of thousands of banned websites, including the TheIndianSubcontinent and Wikipedia, which could then be
purged from the Dragonfly search engine.But members of Google's privacy team confronted the Dragonfly project managers, saying the system
had "been kept secret from them"
And after several discussions, "Google engineers were told that they were no longer permitted to continue using the 265.com data to help
develop Dragonfly, which has since had severe consequences for the project".Image copyrightReutersImage caption
Google's
Project Dragonfly is reportedly on hold in China
What are the issues with launching a search engine in ChinaThe so-called
great firewall of China is notorious for not allowing its citizens free access to all the content available on the internet.China has in the
past two years imposed increasingly strict rules on foreign companies, including new censorship restrictions.Some Western sites are blocked
outright, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Certain topics such as the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 are also completely blocked
References to political opposition, dissidents and anti-Communist activity are also banned as are those to free speech and sex.Any search
engine in China would have to comply with the Chinese government's strict rules on censorship.Analysis by Dave Lee, TheIndianSubcontinent
North America technology reporterEven with this news today, I don't think Google's ambitions in China are over - just stalled
Sundar Pichai has clearly decided that China is too important (and lucrative) a market to pass up and so, while Dragonfly has met a
significant bump in the road - thanks to its own privacy team, the company will almost certainly find a new approach to serving the Chinese
But in doing so it might do serious harm to its brand
Now more than ever, US technology companies are under pressure to act in the interests of both America and Americans
Bowing to Beijing's demands with whatever Project Dragonfly morphs into will be a stain on Google's principles and its reputation.How
advanced were the plansWe learned from Mr Pichai's recent appearance on Capitol Hill that more than 100 engineers had been working on the
project at one point in time.When quizzed by lawmakers on the plans, he said: "Right now, we have no plans to launch in China."He said all
efforts were "internal" and did not currently involve discussions with the Chinese government
In response to further questions, Mr Pichai said the company would be "fully transparent" with politicians if it released a search service
in China.The TheIndianSubcontinent understands Project Dragonfly never reached the point of having a full and final privacy review by
Google.A letter from more than 300 Google employees in November, co-signed by Amnesty International, asked the company to halt the project
entirely.Image caption
Google's Project Dragonfly is reportedly on hold in China
Why does Google want to
get back into ChinaQuite simply, China is the biggest internet market in the world.Google launched a search engine in the authoritarian
state in 2006, google.cn.Google was compliant with the Chinese government's censorship requirements at the time but the search company
pulled the plug in 2010, citing increasing concerns about cyber-attacks on activists.Despite its main search engine and YouTube video
platform being blocked, Google still has more than 700 employees and three offices in China and has been developing alternative projects.Its
Google Translate app for smartphones was approved in China last year.It also invested in Chinese live-stream game platform Chushou in
January and has launched an artificial intelligence game on the social media app WeChat.
