Google plans censored search engine for China

Google is working on a mobile search app for China, allowing the company to re-enter the country after exiting eight years ago due to censorship regulations.

The Alphabet-owned company is designing search software named Dragonfly that would leave out the content forbidden by the Chinese government, according to tech website The Intercept.

Terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app said the media outlet.

The state-owned China Securities Daily, with access to information from “relevant departments”, denied the report but a Google employee confirmed to Reuters that the plan was active. There is still no guarantee the project could allow Google to return to China after it left in 2010 over censorship and hacking rows.

Google has recently been displaying more interest in regaining access to the country. In June 2018 it announced a $550m investment in the Chinese retailer JD.com.

A Chinese human rights community said Google was cooperating with China’s censorship and limiting internet freedom.

According to The Guardian, Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International said: “For the world’s biggest search engine to adopt such extreme measures would be a gross attack on freedom of information and internet freedom. In putting profits before human rights, Google would be setting a chilling precedent and handing the Chinese government a victory.”