Hundreds of Google employees protested in a letter to management against plans to launch a censored search engine in China, British media reported.
>>>Google Launches Censored Search Engine for China
Google workers believe that this project raises “a series of urgent moral and ethical questions,” urging management to be more transparent, according to BBC.
“Currently, we do not have the information necessary to make ethically grounded decisions about our work,” they added.
Google has not publicly commented on plans to launch such a search engine and has declined to comment on the employees’ letter, notes the BBC.
The Alphabet-owned company withdrew from China eight years ago in protest against censorship laws and alleged government hacking.
In July, however, media reported that Google had been secretly working on a new Internet search service in China, internally dubbed Project Dragonfly.
The platform still needs approval from Chinese authorities and is expected to block the display of certain websites and terms, such as human rights and religion, reports the BBC.
>>>Google Offers Paid Internships in China and Taiwan
This has angered some employees and led them to suspect that they were inadvertently developing technology that would help China suppress freedom of speech.
In the letter to management, which they also shared with the media, employees also claim that the platform would violate a clause of Google’s code of conduct, “Don’t be evil.”
“We urgently need more transparency, we need a seat at the table where decisions are made, and a commitment to clear and open processes; we Google employees need to know what we are doing,” the letter states.
This is not the first time that Google employees have raised objections to the company’s decisions, the BBC reminds.
In April, thousands of employees criticized work on a U.S. military program for developing artificial intelligence for drones. Google has since terminated its contract with the Pentagon for AI development.
China has the largest Internet audience in the world, but American tech companies face difficulties penetrating that vast market due to content restrictions and blocks.
>>>Google Invests $550 Million in Chinese E-Commerce Company
Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Instagram are banned, but Google still has three offices in the country, notes the BBC.
