Google employees criticize Chinese search engine project

Over 1,000 Google employees have signed a letter to fight against the company's Chinese search engine project, arguing that it is unethical and that it goes against freedom of expression.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Google was working on a very secretive project called Dragonfly. The project would create a new search engine for the Chinese market that would follow Chinese censorship rules and leave out certain forbidden content from its results.

In the letter, employees asked the company's executives to review the firm’s ethics and transparency because staff lacked the necessary information about the project in order to make "ethical decisions about their work".

"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," the document read.

Employees complained that many colleagues had found out about the project to create a new Chinese search engine through media reports.

The engine would work under Chinese censorship rules and Google engineers were working on ways to block certain search terms and to leave out blacklisted content.

Search terms regarding human rights and religion were examples of those that could be banned in the new search engine.

It was not the first time that Google employees had spoken out against the company's decisions.

In April, thousands of workers had criticised its work on a US military programme developing artificial intelligence for use in drones.