Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
A whistleblower has allegedly uncovered internal documents from Google that show that Google is returning to the Chinese market with a search engine codenamed "Dragonfly." Dragonfly is being built as an Android mobile app and is set up to blacklist specific queries and block websites on China's web censors list. These things will extend to image search, spell check, and suggested search.
The report comes from The Verge via The Intercept, which acquired the documents from the whistleblower. The list of blocked websites in China includes Wikipedia, BBC News, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. The report also shares that the suppression of topics like religion, police brutality, and freedom of speech would continue under the new search engine. As far as why this whistleblower came forward, The Verge reporter said this:
The whistleblower who spoke to The Intercept said they did so because they were “against large companies and governments collaborating in the oppression of their people.” They also suggested that “what is done in China will become a template for many other nations.”
US vs China relations have already been a bit hot with the Huawei investigations and Facebook even saw criticism for sharing data with the Chinese tech company. Stay tuned to Shacknews for additional updates on this story and more.