Google has been criticized over reports that it has started developing a particular search engine that is meant to hide information requested by the Chinese government.
Through this new tool, Google can get around the vast rules that are placed on what can be shared online in the country.
Google withdrew from China in 2010, amid an uproar about the fact it was being forced to censor specific information. But the new plan appears to be an attempt to try and get the company back in, by making sure that censoring is happening in an agreeable way reports independent.co. U.K.
According to reports in The Intercept, the new version of Google would run only in China and would blacklist searches that are banned, Similar to how some results are removed in the European Union; the app would show a note making clear that some pages had been removed.
Lokman Tsui, Google’s head of free expression for Asia and the Pacific between 2011 and 2014 is disappointed with the company’s idea. He said “This is just a horrible idea, a stupid, stupid move,”
“I feel compelled to speak out and say that this is not right added Tsui.”
Patrick Poon, the China researcher at Amnesty International, said the move would violate internet freedom. He stated that “It will be a dark day for internet freedom if Google has acquiesced to China’s extreme censorship rules to gain market access.
It is impossible to see how such a move is compatible with Google’s ‘Do the right thing’ motto, and we are calling on the company to change course,”.