Google Not Close To Launching Censored Search Engine in China: Sundar Pichai

Facing backfire from employees for its reported programme to enter China with a censored version of its search engine, Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed them in an internal coming together and informed that the project, chosen Dragonfly, was at an exploratory phase, the media reported.

Pichai too addressed the controversy surrounding the secrecy of the project, BuzzFeed News reported late on Thursday. While expressing involvement in continuing to expand the company's services in China, Pichai told the employees that the company was "not close" to launching a search product at that place and that whether information technology would — or could — "is all very unclear", the CNBC written report said.

"I think in that location are a lot of times when people are in exploratory stages where teams are debating and doing things, so sometimes being fully transparent at that stage tin can crusade bug," the Google CEO was quoted as saying.

The news almost Google'south programme to build a censored search engine in Communist china broke earlier this calendar month when The Intercept reported that the search platform would blacklist "sensitive queries" about topics including politics, complimentary speech, democracy, human rights and peaceful protestation.

This triggered an outrage amongst some Google staff who complained of lack of transparency within the visitor.

Over 1,400 employees reportedly signed a petition demanding more insight into the project.

At the company coming together on Th, Pichai said that Google has been "very open virtually our desire to practise more in Prc," and that the team "has been in an exploration stage for quite a while now" and "exploring many options", CNBC reported.

Google had before launched a search engine in Prc in 2006, simply pulled the service out of the state in 2010, citing Chinese government efforts to limit gratuitous speech communication and block websites.