Kudos to the Google employees rushing to add their signatures to an open letter calling for the company to kill Project Dragonfly, its program to create a search engine that will comply with the Chinese government’s demands for built-in censorship and surveillance.
Google pulled out of China years ago — giving up the prospect of more profit to stick to its principles after it discovered the regime was exploiting its software to spy on dissidents, among other abuses.But in August, The Intercept revealed that top company execs were reconsidering that decision, running Dragonfly to develop a product that would comply with the regime’s demands. Over a thousand Google employees soon signed a letter flagging the “urgent moral and ethical issues.”
But CEO Sundar Pichai shrugged it off, noting that the “very early” version of the software seemed likely to handle over 99 percent of queries without any censorship issues. Never mind how vital that 1 percent might be — or the question of Google-powered state surveillance.
Months later, the execs are plainly still pining for the profits promised by the vast China market. John Hennessy, the chairman of Google parent Alphabet, noted last week that doing business in China would require the compromising of “core values.”
Which apparently prompted Tuesday’s open letter, released with the signatures of 11 managers and engineers, with over a hundred (and counting) other employees joining in afterward. They note that Dragonfly is not only wrong on the merits, it would open the door to Google enabling other oppressors around the globe.
They fear it’s no longer the company they joined, “willing to place its values above its profits,” and warn, “Google is too powerful not to be held accountable.”
If Google execs don’t forswear work that enables oppression in China, the US government is likely to start imposing that accountability.