NEW: 14 leading human rights groups are uniting to demand that Google cancel its China censored search engine plan, which they say would amount to the company "actively participating" in repression of dissent across the country: theintercept.com/2018/08/28/goo…
The groups have issued the call in a letter to Google CEO @SundarPichai. The letter says the censored search is “an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights” that could result in the company “directly contributing to, or [becoming] complicit in, human rights violations.”
The letter has been signed by: @AccessNow, @Amnesty, @article19org, @CenDemTech, @pressfreedom, @EFF, @hrichina, @hrw, @icpc_eng, @ISHRglobal, @pen_int, @privacyint, @RSF_en, & @witnessorg.
The groups ask Google why it is planning to reverse its 2010 decision to stop running a censored search engine in China. "It is difficult not to conclude that Google is now willing to compromise its principles to gain access to the Chinese market," they write.
The groups want Google to a) reaffirm its 2010 commitment to not provide censored search in China, b) explain the steps it is taking to safeguard human rights for services it operates in China, c) protect whistleblowers inside the company who have spoken out w/ ethical concerns.
“The protection of whistleblowers who disclose information that is clearly in the public interest is grounded in the rights to freedom of expression and access to information," the groups write.
After four weeks of sustained reporting on the censorship plan - codenamed Dragonfly - Google has still not issued a single response to @theintercept & has refused to answer dozens of questions on the issue. @Google_Comms did not reply to a request for comment on the open letter.
Here are some of the questions we are still waiting on Google to answer: theintercept.com/2018/08/17/int…
It's not just journalists Google has been ignoring. The company has also been refusing to engage with human rights groups.
Amnesty researchers told me they set up a phone call with Google to discuss concerns about Dragonfly, but they were stonewalled by the company's human rights policy team, who said they would not talk about “leaks” of info related to the Chinese censorship.
The open letter slams Google’s lack of public engagement on the matter, saying the company’s “refusal to respond substantively to concerns over its reported plans for a Chinese search service falls short of the company’s purported commitment to accountability & transparency.”
Google is a member of @theGNI, a digital rights org that works w/ a coalition of companies, human rights groups, & academics. GNI members agree to implement privacy & free expression principles that appear to prohibit complicity in the sort of censorship widespread in China. 
Following the Dragonfly revelations, sources said, members of the GNI’s board of directors confronted Google representatives about the censorship plans. But the Google reps were not willing to address to the board’s concerns, which caused frustration & anger within the GNI.
If Google is found to have violated the GNI’s principles its status as a member of the organization could potentially be revoked. Google's position as a member of the organization is up for review later this year.
Meanwhile, Google has told employees internally Dragonfly was an "exploratory" project far from launching. But the project has been in development since early 2017 & the infrastructure for the system has already been built.
As recently as last month, search engine chief Ben Gomes told employees working on Dragonfly that they should have the censored search engine ready to be "brought off the shelf and quickly deployed."
The company was aiming to release the censored search platform within six to nine months, due to an ongoing U.S. trade war with China, which had slowed down Google’s negotiations with officials in Beijing.
However, Google was preparing to release the censored search at short notice - within a few weeks - if the trade war cooled & Google got the approvals it needed from Communist Party officials.
According to sources, search engine chief Gomes last month told employees working on Dragonfly: “We need to be focused on what we want to enable, & then when the opening happens, we are ready for it.”
Read the full story here: theintercept.com/2018/08/28/goo…
And the full open letter here: documentcloud.org/documents/4792…
And the full open letter here: documentcloud.org/documents/4792…
