Google employees go public to protest the Dragonfly of the Chinese search engine

More than 30 Google employees have joined a petition protesting against the company's plan to build a search engine compliant with China's online censorship regime. The reaction from employees against the project has been hitting the company for months, but Tuesday's petition marks the first time that Google workers use their name in a public document objecting to these projects.

The existence of the project, named Dragonfly, was confirmed by General Manager Sundar Pichai last month. While China has long been blocking search queries for content deemed politically sensitive, Pichai said Google could still help Chinese netizens find other information, such as health treatments, or keep them away from scams.

However, the project has attracted criticism that calls into question Google's values ​​and worries about the consequences of technology companies' cooperation with authoritarian governments.

"Our opposition to Dragonfly does not concern China: we oppose technologies that help the powerful to oppress the most vulnerable, wherever they are," said the petition published on Medium. "The Chinese government is certainly not the only one wanting to stifle freedom of expression and use surveillance to suppress dissent." In China, Dragonfly would set a dangerous precedent at an unstable political moment, preventing Google from deny stronger other countries similar concessions. "

Amnesty International, which launched a "day of action" on Tuesday to protest against Dragonfly, urged Pichai to abandon the program and appealed to all those asked to sign a petition.

"This is a decisive moment for Google," said Joe Westby, a researcher on technology and human rights at Amnesty International, in a press release. "As the number one search engine in the world, it should be fighting for an Internet where information is freely available to all without supporting the dystopian alternative of the Chinese government."

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this year, more than 1,400 Google employees signed an internal letter calling for more transparency and accountability in business project ethics, citing Dragonfly as an initiative developed without employee involvement. "Currently, we do not have the information needed to make informed ethical decisions about our work, our projects and our jobs," the letter reads.

Pichai said that Google's China-compliant search engine is not acquired. "I consider this in the long run," he said at an event organized by Wired in October. "And I think it's important for us – given the importance of the market and the number of users – we feel compelled to think seriously about this problem and to adopt a long-term vision."

If Google opts for Dragonfly, this could allow the company to return to the Chinese market of online research after nearly 10 years.

But Google's projects in China have drawn the attention of US lawmakers who have accused the company of being evasive of the search engine prototype. More generally, the technology sector is facing a strong response from data privacy practices. Some members of Congress proposed legislation that would place new restrictions on how technology companies collect and use customer data.

(This story has not been changed by NDTV staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)