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Google discusses move into China with employees following internal discord
Google LLC Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has addressed employees’ concerns over the company developing a censored search engine for China.
It lately came to light that the company has for some years been looking at a Chinese-friendly censored website, codenamed “Dragonfly.” This hasn’t gone down well with some Google employees who believe a heavily censored search engine is not exactly ethical.
The mounting concern led to a letter signed that was signed by at least 1,400 Google employees. The letter, obtained by the New York Times and published Thursday, discusses the morality of the mission.
“Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment,” said the disgruntled employees. “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,”
According to Bloomberg, a meeting was held Thursday at the company and the matter was discussed. Pichai told worried employees that the project wasn’t imminent.
“We are not close to launching a search product in China,” Pichai said, according to a transcript that Bloomberg had acquired. “And whether we would do so or could so is all very unclear.”
One official reportedly suggested that the topic should be changed because the matter has already been leaked online. Google co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly said he would not discuss the topic further because the meeting’s discussion was being live-tweeted.
It may seem to employees that any hint of a move to developing a censored search engine in China is a step backward and a contradiction of company ethics. In 2010, Google removed most of its services from the country because of government censorship. The employees were also concerned that the project was being done in secret.
“I genuinely do believe we have a positive impact when we engage around the world and I don’t see any reason why that would be different in China,” Pichai said, according to the obtained manuscript. “We’ll definitely be transparent as we get closer to actually having a plan of record here. We definitely do plan to engage more and talk more.”
Image: :D/Flickr
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