Google—Google secretly developed Project Dragonfly censored search engine for China before employee protests forced cancellation
From 2017 to 2019, Google secretly developed Project Dragonfly, a censored search engine for China that would link users' phone numbers to searches and block sites covering human rights, democracy, and religion. After The Intercept exposed the project in August 2018, over 1,400 employees signed internal letters demanding transparency, 600+ signed public petitions calling for cancellation, and a senior researcher resigned in protest. Amnesty International called it 'an alarming capitulation on human rights.' Google terminated the project in July 2019 under sustained internal and external pressure.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authoritarian Compliance | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Open Internet & Web Freedom | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.983 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
The Intercept exposed Google's secret Project Dragonfly censored search engine for China
The Intercept reported that Google was secretly building a censored search engine for China, codenamed Project Dragonfly, that would link users' phone numbers to searches and censor topics including human rights, democracy, and religion. Over 1,400 employees signed internal letters and 600+ signed public petitions demanding cancellation. Google terminated the project in July 2019.