Google LLC has been busy using a little-known Chinese company it bought in 2008 to develop a Chinese-friendly censored website, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

Most of Google’s services are not available in China, but Google owns the Chinese-language web directory 265.com. When users type in a search request on that site they are redirected to China’s main search engine, Baidu. It seems Google has been analyzing searches and results through this method.

These efforts, according to reports, are so Google can launch a censored search engine in China codenamed “Dragonfly.” Search results on this engine won’t include any content China now deems sensitive, such as issues relating to human rights or antigovernment content.

Presently in China, if citizens search for information on matters such as the Tiananmen Square massacre, or content promoting anticommunism, they’ll be faced with little or no information. Even when users make more vague search queries such as “Taiwan,” anything politically related will be blacked out.

Documents obtained by The Intercept, named “Google confidential,” state that the new search engine will be able to identify and block any content already being blocked by China’s Great Firewall. The documents give examples of disapproved content, and some of it was on the BBC’s website and also the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

According to the report when users do attempt to search for sensitive information they will me met with the message, “some results may have been removed due to statutory requirements.”

The report said only a handful of people at Google are working on Dragonfly, with an anonymous source saying some of those involved felt uncomfortable with the ethics of censoring.

“I’m against large companies and governments collaborating in the oppression of their people, and feel like transparency around what’s being done is in the public interest,” said the source, adding that there are concerns that what is happening in China could become a template for other nations.

It’s not clear if there will be a desktop version of this search engine. Since around 95 percent of China’s population access the internet through mobile devices and Android is easily the most used operating system in the country, the report said, Google is focused on that.

Google pulled out of China in 2010 to “make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn.” This apparent change of mind has not gone down well with some Google employees, who have called it the new “Project Maven.” That was the company’s deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop artificial intelligence to go through drone footage.

U.S. senator Marco Rubio was also not enamored with the move after reading the report. “Reading how @Google has plans to help #China set up a censored search engine is very disturbing,” he tweeted. “They won’t help ⁦@DeptofDefense⁩ keep us safe but they will help China suppress the truth?”

Google hasn’t issued a statement yet regarding the report. A representative told Business Insider only that “we don’t comment on speculation about future plans.”

Image: Gauthier DELECROIX via Flickr