Google planning to launch censored Chinese search engine

China has some of the harshest laws that tech companies must comply with or face being banned from operating in the country.

Google is planning to release a censored version of its search app in China, according to a report from The Intercept.

Apparently, talks between Google and Chinese officials have been ongoing for some time.

Human rights group Amnesty International is anxious that such a move from Google would set a unsafe precedent for the country. Other employees expressed similar frustration to Bloomberg News, but asked not to be identified.

The Google.cn for China website is seen on a computer screen in this photo illustration.

Google’s Android already has the largest market share of any operating system in China, now accounting for roughly 51 percent of all devices. Don’t be evil. The corporate profits aren’t worth it. Government officials have been shown prototypes, which presumably have met with their satisfaction. “The liberals of this world obviously will recoil at the idea”.

Google has been working for more than a year on a new Search app for Android that would serve the Chinese market, but in the way the Chinese government wants it to operate. The Chinese government is yet to give final approval, The Intercept said. The company also complained at the time of hacking attacks that appeared to come from China.

Asked about The Intercept report, Google said in a statement that “we don’t comment on speculation about future plans”.

Google is not the only company Cotton has knocked for their handling of Beijing’s interests. Most of its services are blocked, including Gmail and the Google Play app store. This censorship will happen across the board, with elements like image search, spell check, and search suggestions hiding keywords blocked on request of the Chinese government.

Beijing-based Baidu tumbled 7.7 per cent to US$228.07 as of the close of trading on Wednesday. For example, it insisted past year that it wasn’t blocking VPNs, which are now one of the few options for Chinese citizens who want to bypass the Great Firewall. “They won’t help ⁦Department of Defense⁩ keep us safe but they will help China suppress the truth?”

According to The Intercept’s Ryan Gallagher, who first reported on the tech giant’s plans on Wednesday, “The project-code-named Dragonfly-has been underway since spring of previous year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official”.

If you take a look at Google’s global disruption map, China is among the handful number of red-colored countries that don’t allow its services. The Chinese government is well known for blocking a plethora of content ranging from any material that is critical of Communism, any references to the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, pornography and even George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm”.