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US-CHINA-INTERNET-COMPUTERS-GOOGLE-POLITICS
Google employees sign protest letter over China search engine: NYT
WASHINGTON, Aug 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Hundreds of Google employees have
signed a protest letter over the company’s reported work on a censor-friendly
search engine to get back into China, The New York Times said Thursday.
The employees are demanding more transparency so they can understand the
moral implications of their work, said the Times, which obtained a copy of
the letter.
It has been signed by 1,400 employees and is circulating on the company’s
internal communications system, the newspaper said, quoting three people who
are familiar with the document.
The letter argues that the search engine project and Google’s apparent
willingness to accept China’s censorship requirements “raise urgent moral and
ethical issues.”
“Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-
informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment,” they
say in the letter, according to the Times.
Employee anger flared with a report earlier this month in The Intercept
that Google is secretly building a search engine that will filter content
banned in China and thus meet Beijing’s tough censorship rules.
Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to
censorship and hacking.
The new project is said to be codenamed “Dragonfly.”
The tech giant had already come under fire this year from thousands of
employees who signed a petition against a $10-million contract with the US
military, which was not renewed.
With the secret project, Google employees are reportedly worried that they
might unknowingly be working on technology that could help China hide
information from its people.
“We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, and a commitment
to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we’re
building,” the protest letter says, according to the Times.
At a townhall gathering of employees on Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai
said the firm was committed to transparency, and that while it was “exploring
many options”, it was “not close to launching a search product in China,” the
Financial Times reported, citing a person present at the meeting.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1050 hrs