Known as "Operation Dragonfly," the project had been a work in progress until late last year when, due to growing public backlash and scrutiny, Google decided to shelve it – at least temporarily. Former Google workers believe, based on evidence they've been gathering, that Google simply reallocated the project elsewhere to keep it under the radar.
"Sources with knowledge of Dragonfly said staff who were working on the project were not told to immediately cease their efforts," reported The Intercept, which first broke the story.
"Rather, they were instructed to finish up the jobs they were doing and then they would be allocated new work on other teams. Some of those who were working on Dragonfly were moved into different areas, focusing on projects related to Google's search services in India, Indonesia, Russia, the Middle East, and Brazil."
One major red flag that suggests Google is still working on Operation Dragonfly has to do with the code archives, which have continued to be updated well into 2019 despite the company's earlier claims that the project is no longer active.
"Right now it feels unlaunchable, but I don't think they are canceling outright," says former Google software engineer Colin McMillen, who reportedly left the company back in February because of what he was seeing.
"I think they are putting it on the back burner and are going to try it again in a year or two with a different code name or approach," he further contends.
For more news about the nefarious activities of Google, be sure to check out EvilGoogle.com.
Google insists there's "no work" happening on Operation Dragonfly, despite evidence to the contrary
In a recent statement to The Verge, a Google spokesman adamantly denied that the company is still working on project, despite copious and mounting evidence to the contrary.
"This speculation is wholly inaccurate," this spokesman stated. "Quite simply: There's no work happening on Dragonfly. As we've said for many months, we have no plans to launch Search in China and there is no work being undertaken on such a project. Team members have moved to new projects."
Google's alleged decision to scrap Operation Dragonfly came after the company was forced to testify before the House Judiciary Committee back in December. Opposition from entities on both sides of the political aisle, including from Amnesty International, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Vice President Mike Pence, and more than 700 Google employees, essentially forced Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, into making the questionable claim that there are "no plans" to release a China-customized Google search engine.
Should the opposite ever actually manifest, however, Google will be complicit in helping China to censor all content that Xi Jinping's Communist Party finds unacceptable, including all information about how his regime actively harvests the organs of political dissidents as punishment for the "crime" of free speech.
Even when Operation Dragonfly was still being worked on publicly, those involved with the project say that much of what actually went on was kept secret. One source reportedly told The Intercept that workers were told to maintain a hush-hush policy around other Google employees, and that open transparency was discouraged.
"We were told to avoid referencing it around our team members, and if they ask, to deflect questions," this source is quoted as saying.
To read more news about how Big Tech corporations like Google continue to chip away at free speech all around the world, be sure to check out Technocrats.news.
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