If you didn’t know, the Chinese Government blocks access to over 18,000 websites like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. It requires these companies to adapt to its domestic regulations which are more than 60 in number. Google, which formerly followed their tough censorship and then pulled out, is planning to relaunch in China.
The restrictions
The Government blocks all the websites the Communist Party of China mandates. It censors subjects like the Cultural Revolution, the independence movements in Tibet and Taiwan, free speech, certain religious texts, etc. This is mainly done to prevent feelings of overthrowing the government, causing hatred among nationalities, and terrorism among citizens.
Google China
Previously, Google had a subsidiary in China called Google China. It was quite popular at the time. However, its market share started falling. After a series of cyber attacks (codenamed Operation Aurora) on Google and other organizations like Adobe and Yahoo, Google stated in its blog that it plans to operate a completely uncensored version of its search engine in China. It acknowledged that if this is not possible, it may leave the country and close its Chinese offices.
Google started redirecting all its searches to the Hong Kong version of the site. Then, Google was banned in China by the government.
Project Dragonfly
Google is now going to launch a censored version of its search engine as an app first. A desktop release may follow later on. They have created an Android app that goes by two version names—Maotai and Longfei.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and a Chinese official met in December 2017 according to internal documents. A prototype of the app has already been demonstrated to the government. The finalized version could be launched in the next 6 months after approval from the government.
The changes
The search app will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest. All the banned websites will be excluded when a search is carried out and a disclaimer will be displayed. Google’s image search, automatic spell check, and suggested search features will also not recommend information or photographs the government has banned.
Conclusion
This move is a win for the Chinese government, but may also encourage other websites to not challenge the unjust policies and could be unfair to the people of China. Further, it may encourage other countries to start censoring the web, leading to the death of net neutrality.
Source: The Intercept
References: Wikipedia (Great Firewall, Censorship in China, Internet censorship in China, Google China, Operation Aurora)
