Google is continuing work on a censored search engine in China, according to an internal investigation of the tech giant by workers.
A group of unnamed workers found evidence that Project Dragonfly, the name of the controversial censored search engine for China, is still being worked on by Google. The group found code associated with the search engine still being actively developed, according to a report from The Intercept.
Details continue to come to light about the secretive censored project, like connecting searches to phones, and enabling the government to more readily track people.
Project Dragonfly was scheduled to be ready for release by April of this year. Leaks of Google’s plans to work with Chinese censorship to launch the search engine brought intense opposition. After learning about the project last August, more than 1,000 workers protested and some quit.
The controversial project was reportedly abandoned following popular condemnation of Google.
The internal investigation reportedly found ongoing work on the project. 500 changes to the code were noticed in December and more than 400 changes in January and February. Workers carrying out the investigation found around 100 workers still listed under the projects budget, according to the report.
Google continues to deny it is maintaining ongoing work on the censored search engine for China.
Photo: “GOOGLE BEIJING” by Cory M. Grenier is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
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