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posted by martyb on Wednesday October 10 2018, @07:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the Dr.-Ian-Malcolm dept.

Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google's Official Story on China

"We have to be focused on what we want to enable," said Ben Gomes, Google's search engine chief. "And then when the opening happens, we are ready for it." It was Wednesday, July 18, and Gomes was addressing a team of Google employees who were working on a secretive project to develop a censored search engine for China, which would blacklist phrases like "human rights," "student protest," and "Nobel Prize."

"You have taken on something extremely important to the company," Gomes declared, according to a transcript of his comments obtained by The Intercept. "I have to admit it has been a difficult journey. But I do think a very important and worthwhile one. And I wish ourselves the best of luck in actually reaching our destination as soon as possible." [...] Gomes, who joined Google in 1999 and is one of the key engineers behind the company's search engine, said he hoped the censored Chinese version of the platform could be launched within six and nine months, but it could be sooner. "This is a world none of us have ever lived in before," he said. "So I feel like we shouldn't put too much definite into the timeline."

[...] Google has refused to answer questions or concerns about Dragonfly. On Sept. 26, a Google executive faced public questions on the censorship plan for the first time. Keith Enright told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that there "is a Project Dragonfly," but said "we are not close to launching a product in China." When pressed to give specific details, Enright refused, saying that he was "not clear on the contours of what is in scope or out of scope for that project."

Senior executives at Google directly involved in building the censorship system have largely avoided any public scrutiny. But on Sept. 23, Gomes briefly addressed Dragonfly when confronted by a BBC reporter at an event celebrating Google's 20th anniversary. "Right now, all we've done is some exploration," Gomes told the reporter, "but since we don't have any plans to launch something, there's nothing much I can say about it." Gomes' statement kept with the company's official line. But it flatly contradicted what he had privately told Google employees who were working on Dragonfly — which disturbed some of them. One Google source told The Intercept Gomes's comments to the BBC were "bullshit."

Here's an article written by Dave Lee, the BBC reporter that Ben Gomes misled.

Previously: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal
Uproar at Google after News of Censored China Search App Breaks
"Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project
Google Suppresses Internal Memo About China Censorship; Eric Schmidt Predicts Internet Split


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  • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday October 11 2018, @08:42AM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday October 11 2018, @08:42AM (#747339) Homepage Journal

    Believe me, it ain't just Google that censors.

    What about the 2 Subs in the Subs Queue. From Anonymous. They're "Pending." Supposedly. They call it pending, it's not pending. It looks like IGNORE. It looks like, didn't read. But, maybe the Editors made VERY SECRET TWEETS about them. And they'll say, "oh those were terrible terrible Subs. And we can't tell you what the Editors said about them, it's very private. But they're definitely not going on the Front Page." And they won't say, "oh, by the way Anonymous did some Subs, we made a better one, we think it's much better than you could do, but thank you Anonymous." No credit to Anonymous. They'll be Pending then the Robot Editor will reject. So sorry!!!

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