More than 1,000 Google workers protest censored China search

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is not close to launching a search engine app in China, its chief executive said at a companywide meeting on Thursday, according to a transcript seen by Reuters, as employees of the Alphabet Inc unit called for more transparency and oversight of the project.

Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told staff that though development is in an early stage, providing more services in the world's most populous country fits with Google's global mission.

Hoping to gain approval from the Chinese government to provide a mobile search service, the company plans to block some websites and search terms, Reuters reported this month, citing unnamed sources.

Whether the company could or would launch search in China "is all very unclear," Pichai said, according to the transcript. "The team has been in an exploration stage for quite a while now, and I think they are exploring many options."

Disclosure of the secretive effort has disturbed some Google employees and human rights advocacy organizations. They are concerned that by agreeing to censorship demands, Google would validate China's prohibitions on free expression and violate the "don't be evil" clause in the company's code of conduct.

More than a thousand employees signed a letter protesting the company's secretive plan and calling on the company to provide more "transparency, oversight and accountability," according to an internal petition seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The letter is similar to one thousands of employees had signed in protest of Project Maven, a U.S. military contract that Google decided in June not to renew.

The letter says employees lack the information required "to make ethically informed decisions about our work" and complains that most employees only found out about the project — nicknamed Dragonfly — through media reports.

"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," states the document seen by Reuters.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRussia’s secrecy after a mysterious plague lab death raises global alarm

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAfter surviving a botched lethal injection, Christa Pike faces unprecedented legal battle

FOR SUBSCRIBERSHunger in a land of plenty: Major food banks face ‘heartbreaking’ need, NBC News survey finds

FOR SUBSCRIBERSInflation and tariffs push U.S. holiday spending projections to a record $1.7 trillion

FOR SUBSCRIBERSWhat happened inside the room where officials tried to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection

FOR SUBSCRIBERSHow we reported the saga of the CIA officer and his gold-bar stash

FOR SUBSCRIBERSBrad Raffensperger gears up to oversee his final election in Georgia

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDiddy is punished following NBC News report on his VIP life in prison and contraband cellphone use

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘Too young to vote, old enough to be tear gassed’: French protesters’ anger swells

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDOJ gets aggressive in suing states that challenge Trump’s immigration policies

FOR SUBSCRIBERSJustice Department seeks criminal charge for former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘I just want to hold him’: USS Lincoln sailor to meet his 10-month-old son as ship docks

FOR SUBSCRIBERSSenate candidates run on raising Social Security taxes for higher incomes to prevent benefit cuts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRussian operation that used ChatGPT tricked schools, a politician and media, OpenAI says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump administration’s deal with Nevada fuels data center fight in governor’s race

Slide 1 of 1

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRussia’s secrecy after a mysterious plague lab death raises global alarm

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAfter surviving a botched lethal injection, Christa Pike faces unprecedented legal battle

FOR SUBSCRIBERSHunger in a land of plenty: Major food banks face ‘heartbreaking’ need, NBC News survey finds

FOR SUBSCRIBERSInflation and tariffs push U.S. holiday spending projections to a record $1.7 trillion

FOR SUBSCRIBERSWhat happened inside the room where officials tried to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection

FOR SUBSCRIBERSHow we reported the saga of the CIA officer and his gold-bar stash

FOR SUBSCRIBERSBrad Raffensperger gears up to oversee his final election in Georgia

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDiddy is punished following NBC News report on his VIP life in prison and contraband cellphone use

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘Too young to vote, old enough to be tear gassed’: French protesters’ anger swells

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDOJ gets aggressive in suing states that challenge Trump’s immigration policies

FOR SUBSCRIBERSJustice Department seeks criminal charge for former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson

FOR SUBSCRIBERS‘I just want to hold him’: USS Lincoln sailor to meet his 10-month-old son as ship docks

FOR SUBSCRIBERSSenate candidates run on raising Social Security taxes for higher incomes to prevent benefit cuts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRussian operation that used ChatGPT tricked schools, a politician and media, OpenAI says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump administration’s deal with Nevada fuels data center fight in governor’s race

Slide 1 of 1

The New York Times first reported the petition on Thursday. Google declined to comment.

Company executives have not commented publicly on Dragonfly, and their remarks at the company-wide meeting marked their first about the project since details about it were leaked.

Employees have asked Google to create an ethics review group with rank-and-file workers, appoint ombudspeople to provide independent review and internally publish assessments of projects that raise substantial ethical questions.

Three former employees involved with Google's past efforts in China told Reuters current leadership may see offering limited search results in China as better than providing no information at all.

The same rationale led Google to enter China in 2006. It left in 2010 over an escalating dispute with regulators that was capped by what security researchers identified as state-sponsored cyberattacks against Google and other large U.S. firms.

The former employees said they doubt the Chinese government will welcome back Google. A Chinese official, who declined to be named, told Reuters this month that it is “very unlikely” Dragonfly would be available this year.