Google workers want unplugged plan for research in China

SAN FRANCISCO, United States – Google workers released an open letter on Tuesday (November 27th) calling on the Internet giant to cancel plans for "censored research" in China, on pain of creating a dangerous precedent.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly acknowledged for the first time last month that the company plans to create a search engine for China, saying it could offer "better information" to citizens than competing services.

Unconfirmed reports of the "Dragonfly Project" provoked protests by Google staff, as well as groups such as Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and Amnesty International, encouraging people to sign an online petition demanding its cancellation.

"Our opposition to Dragonfly does not concern China: we oppose technologies that help the powerful to oppress the most vulnerable, wherever they are," read the letter of the workers, which bore the names of 90 employees from Google and called more companies over 94,000 employees to sign.

"Dragonfly in China would set a dangerous precedent at an unstable political moment, preventing Google from denying other countries similar concessions."

A search application designed to filter the censored content of the results could undermine the trust of all Internet users in Google, said Amnesty International in a message published Tuesday on its website.

"This is a decisive moment for Google," said Joe Westby, Amnesty International's researcher on technology and human rights.

"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."

Speaking at a conference last month, Pichai said Google executives "feel compelled to think seriously" about China, despite criticism of the possibility of cooperating with censorship Chinese. (READ: Google's search engine in China to closely monitor user data and queries – report)

"We are still balancing a set of values," he said, adding that "we also respect the rule of law in all countries."

Google stopped its search engine in China in 2010, denying Beijing's obligation to censor search results.

Pichai described the Dragonfly project as an attempt to find out more about what Google could offer if it resumed its search operations in the world's second-largest economy.

"It turns out that we would be able to answer more than 99% (search) requests," he said on a stage during a Q & A session.

"And there are so many areas in which we would provide better information than available."

Pichai gave no details on the progress of the effort but said he was adopting a "long-term vision" of China.

"We do not know if we could do that in China, but we felt it was important to explore," he said.

"I think it's important to us given the importance of the market and the number of users."

The titans of the American Internet have long struggled to do business in China, a country of the "Great Firewall" that blocks sensitive content, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

The websites of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and The New York Times are blocked in China, but Microsoft's Bing search engine continues to work. – Rappler.com