Google employees resign to protest Dragonfly project, a censored search engine for China



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Seven employees quit their jobs at Google to protest the company's project known as "Dragonfly Project". The project was designed to eliminate the content that the Chinese government considers sensitive. ( Robert Scoble | Flickr )

After more than two years working at Google, Google scientist Jack Poulson left the company in revolt against Project Dragonfly.

Poulson, who started working for the company in May 2016, revealed that he had focused his interests on Google's top ranks after news of them secretly working on a censored version of his search engine. research in China spread like wildfire. Nicknamed Libellule, the search system aimed to remove content deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, including information on democracy, freedom of expression and human rights.

After an in-depth discussion with his bosses, Poulson decided in mid-August that he could no longer continue working for Google, claiming that the dragonfly was a confiscation of the public commitment to human rights. The last day of Poulson at the company was August 31st.

"I consider our intention to capitulate to requests for censorship and surveillance in exchange for access to the Chinese market as a confiscation of our values ​​and the government's negotiating position around the world." Our actions in China to demand our compliance with their security requirements, "wrote Poulson on his letter of resignation

Prior to working for Google, Poulson was previously an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Stanford University. Apart from Poulson, BuzzFeed reports that six other employees have left their jobs at Google, citing the lack of transparency of the company.

"Our policy is not to comment on individual employees," said a spokesman for Google, who was asked to comment on Poulson's resignation.

Google is speechless

It has been six weeks since Dragonfly was revealed to the public, but Google has not yet responded to concerns about this project. This month, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, was an advocate at the hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he was allegedly interrogated on the China case.

Reports indicate that only a few hundred of the company's 88,000 employees knew of Dragonfly before it was revealed. Since then, more than 1,400 employees have signed a letter protesting Google's censorship plans.

In a similar vein, Google also launched a censored search engine in China in 2006, but ceased operations in 2010 after the Chinese government blocked websites, hacked Gmail accounts, and restricted freedom. d & # 39; expression. In addition to Dragonfly, employees also realized that Google was working closely with the Pentagon to create an artificially intelligent technology for the drone war in March.

Photo: Robert Scoble | Flickr

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