Baidu Tumbles On Report Google Plans Censored Search Engine For China
Jul 31, 2018
Shares of China's search giant Baidu are plunging, giving up an earlier earnings-driven gain, after a report that Google is reported to be pursuing a censored search engine for the China market.
Google, which has long contemplated how to enter the Chinese market but has so far resisted selling out and complying with Beijing's censorship demands, has demonstrated the app which would blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and protests, to the Chinese government, The Intercept reported earlier. It adds that a final version could be rolled out in six to nine months.
Google originally shut down its Chinese search engine in 2010, citing government attempts to “limit free speech on the web" but that no longer appears to be a binding consideration. More from The Verge:
Google previously offered a censored version of its search engine in China between 2006 and 2010, before pulling out of the country after facing criticism in the US. (Politicians said the company was acting as a “functionary of the Chinese government.”) In recent months, though, the company has been attempting to reintegrate itself into the Chinese commercial market. It launched an AI research lab in Beijing last December, a mobile file management app in January, and an AI-powered doodle game just last month.
According to internal documents provided to The Intercept by a whistleblower, Google has been developing the censored version of its search engine under the codename Dragonfly since the beginning of 2017. The search engine is being built as an Android mobile app, and will reportedly “blacklist sensitive queries” and filter out all websites blocked by China’s web censors (including Wikipedia and BBC News). The censorship will extend to Google’s image search, spell check, and suggested search features.
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