After Eight Years Google Planning Comeback in China to Work on a Censored Search Engine

Google withdrew from China eight years ago, due to censorship and hacking. Now, after a long period, the internet giant is working on a mobile search app that would block certain search terms and allow it to re-enter China, two of the sources said. Google has an excellent team of engineers, which work for the search of an app that restricts content, which is banned by Beijing, said the people.

The progress on the censored search engine project gathers after the meeting between the China Government and the Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai.

Google often builds and tests many different services that never become publicly available. Yet, after the existence of the project, it does not mean that Google returning to China is forthcoming, as the people cautioned.

Google’s position in China, which has been reported earlier by the interrupt, is the recent example of how American technology companies are trying to tailor their products to enter the huge Chinese market, even if it means tamping down free speech in China.

Many of these overtures appear to fall shortly after winning over Beijing. Last month, Facebook had gained the permission to open a subsidiary in China’s Zhejiang Province, but that approval has abruptly was withdrawn after a matter of hours.

Google has been working on a censored search engine for China, which had already caused a whoop among Human Rights activists. Many of the companies are anxious, which would block a long list of foreign websites that include Facebook, Twitter and The New York Times, as well as Chinese search queries including the 1989 Tiananmen massacre and information about the Chinese leadership.

The Amnesty International said that it would be a “dark day for internet freedom” and it would constitute “a gross attack on freedom of information and internet freedom” if the technology giant accepted China’s censorship terms.