>>9734632
>Code-Name: Dragonfly
What Is Google’s Project Dragonfly, And Why Is It So Concerning?
China wants a censored search engine, and Google might be greedy enough to oblige them.
2018 december
BY SIERRA ZARECK, HAVERFORD COLLEGE
https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/what-is-googles-project-dragonfly-and-why-is-it-so-concerning/
At the time of the August Intercept article, Google had already made a custom censored Android search app and demonstrated it to the Chinese government. According to Intercept, “The finalized version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials.” This directly contradicts Google’s response to the leak. “We’ve been investing for many years to help Chinese users,” a spokesperson said, “from developing Android, through mobile apps such as Google Translate and Files Go and our developer tools. But our work on search has been exploratory, and we are not close to launching a search product in China.”
The censored search app is intended to automatically filter websites such as BBC and Wikipedia that are blocked by China’s “Great Firewall,” which Xi Jinping’s Communist Party uses to enforce their strict censorship laws that cover areas including free speech, news, political dissidence and even academic studies.
According to the leaked documents and sources, it would “blacklist sensitive queries” as well, so “no results will be shown” when people search specific words or phrases; entries such as “human rights,” “student protest” and “Nobel Prize” would be amongst those blacklisted.
The Chinese government would also be able to easily access people’s search records, posing significant danger to those the government systematically targets, such as journalists, activists and political opponents.
The incentive behind Project Dragonfly is the current ban of Google’s search engine by the Great Firewall. Given that China has a population of 1.3 billion and the largest number of internet users in the world, it is no wonder Google wants to capitalize on their market.
But Project Dragonfly becomes even more alarming in light of both Google’s actions in 2010 and its original moral compass. Google actually came to China in 2006 with censored search results, intending to be a positive influence by at least informing the Chinese public when their results were filtered to help educate them on government censorship. However, in 2010 Google left China in protest to the Chinese government’s increased censorship and threats of cyber attacks. Enough was enough, and Google vowed to no longer censor its search results, seemingly upholding its unofficial motto, “Don’t be evil,” by sacrificing revenue for moral integrity.
Google also adopted principles surrounding their technology and human rights after the controversy around the Pentagon AI contract, Project Maven. These principles state that Google will not develop AI technology that, amongst other things, provides surveillance that opposes international norms or infringes on human rights or international law.
TWITTER HAS GOOGLE'S DRAGONFLY?