Feb 8, 2019

Project Dragonfly?

Project Dragonfly?

On Aug. 1, The Intercept’s Ryan Gallagher reported that Google was planning to launch a censored search engine in China, under the codename “Dragonfly.” According to those familiar with the project and the leaked internal Google documents, the project began in spring 2017 and gained more traction after an important Chinese government official met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

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.

Earlier reports stated that prototypes and negotiations with the Chinese government were far along, laying the groundwork for the potential service to launch as soon as early 2019.

In December 2018, Google claimed the project was killed, probably as a result of public criticism. But see the included article about how Google is currently working with Russia to do the exact same thing by censoring search content that will meet with government approval.

What kind of similar political censorship is Google currently actively engaged in to influence public discourse in the US? Who is deciding what is suitable content?

Is Google required to report revenues from working for the Chinese and Russian Governments? The figure above from the recent 10K groups revenues more broadly by geographic area. Is there any way to know whether Google's wide reach involved working for/with any entities prohibited by the Iran Sanctions?

https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/what-is-googles-project-dragonfly-and-why-is-it-so-concerning/

https://futurism.com/google-censoring-search-results-russia

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/27/read-google-employees-open-letter-protesting-project-dragonfly.html

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/10/google-is-handing-the-future-of-the-internet-to-china/