NEW: We got a leaked transcript of Google's search engine chief Ben Gomes discussing the company's censored China search engine plan, "Dragonfly." It exposes a stark contrast between Google's public & private statements about the secretive project: theintercept.com/2018/10/09/goo…
Last month, Gomes told a BBC reporter that the censored search engine was just “an exploration” & claimed "we don’t have any plans to launch something." A Google source told me that was "bullshit." (bbc.com/news/technolog…) 
Gomes privately told staff working on Dragonfly that he wanted the censored search engine completed “as soon as possible” & hoped to launch it in China between Jan & April 2019 or sooner. In July, he instructed staff to prepare so "when the opening happens, we are ready for it."
The search engine has been designed to comply w/ the censorship regime demanded by China's ruling Communist Party; it would block people from accessing broad categories of information, blacklisting phrases like “human rights,” “student protest,” & “Nobel Prize."
The transcript shows Gomes told the team of employees designing Dragonfly: “You have taken on something extremely important to the company -- our basic mission of serving all of the world’s users."
"China I think is one of the most interesting markets, arguably the most interesting market in the world today," he added. "I didn’t expect we’d be able to make the changes from a search perspective that we’ve been able to."
I called Gomes twice over the weekend. Asked about Dragonfly, he claimed he had a bad line. “I can’t hear anything that you are saying, I can just hear that you are talking,” he said, & swiftly hung up the phone. He didn't respond to emails or text messages seeking comment.
Two months since we first revealed Dragonfly, Google has still not responded to concerns about the project raised by 14 human rights groups, US Senators, & even US vice president @Mike_Pence, who last week called on Google to "immediately end development of the Dragonfly app."
The Gomes transcript is the first insight into how Google execs really view Dragonfly. It shows the company's intention to launch ASAP, contradicting @Google_Comms' & @SundarPichai's statements falsely presenting the project as in its early stages & "not close" to completion.
You can read the full story -- & the full Gomes transcript -- here: theintercept.com/2018/10/09/goo…
The revelations about Dragonfly over the last two months - & the backlash that's ensued - have startled Google's leadership & likely affected the plan. But crucially: bosses have instructed engineers to continue developing the censored China search engine, sources say.
I told them but they didn't listen.
