Google is reportedly preparing to get back into China, a profitable market where it has a long history of tangling with authorities.
Google plans to develop a search app in China that would block sensitive websites and search terms to comply with Chinese government censorship reports the Intercept.
China consists of hundreds of millions of internet users and a thriving online shopping market. Jumping back into China presents ethical issues for Google (GOOGL), which has long advocated a free and open internet.
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.
“The Chinese tech companies that currently dominate search can’t compete with Google’s product,” said Andy Tian CEO of Asia Innovations.
“There is a huge void Google can fill that voids,” added Tian
Google denied to answer on Intercept question regarding its plan with China; Google mentioned “we don’t comment on speculation about plans”, at its statement.
Along with many other internet platforms, China has banned Google’s most popular products- search, YouTube, and Gmail.
Google launched a Chinese language version of its search engine — Google. Cn — in 2006. It complied with Beijing’s censorship laws. China blocked Google searches on the eve of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2014.
Google has already been criticized over reports that it has started developing a specialized search engine that is meant to hide information requested by the Chinese government.
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,”