Google-anställda vill inte bygga censurerad sökmotor för Kina. Vill veta vad det är de bygger på företaget.

Google-anställda vill inte bygga censurerad sökmotor för Kina

Vill veta vad det är de bygger på företaget

I början av månaden ryktades det att Google sedan ett tag tillbaka håller på att utveckla en censurerad version av sin sökmotor för den kinesiska marknaden och det verkar inte ha fallit i god jord hos en del av företagets anställda.

Enligt New York Times cirkulerar det nu ett upprop på Google där de anställda som anser att det är fel att lansera en censurerad version av Googles sökmotor i Kina uppmanas skriva på en protestlista. Enligt New York Times har cirka 1400 av Googles cirka 85.000 anställda än så länge skrivit under protestlistan.

I uppropet som New York Times kommit över står bland annat:
"We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we’re building."
och
"Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment."
Enligt nyhetsbyrån Bloomberg ska Googles vd Sundar Pichai ha kommenterat protesten mot en eventuell censurerad sökmotor för Kina för Googles anställda och då ska han bland annat ha sagt:
"We are not close to launching a search product in China. And whether we would do so or could so is all very unclear."

Uppdaterat
I faktarutan nedan hittar ni hela mailet som de Google-anställda skickade till Googles ledning.

bloomberg.com

Internet, Google, google, sökmotorer, censur, kina, dragonflyVia nytimes.com

Google-anställdas öppna brev till Googles ledning

Our industry has entered a new era of ethical responsibility: the choices we make matter on a global scale. Yet most of us only learned about project Dragonfly through news reports [in] early August. Dragonfly is reported to be an effort to provide Search and personalized mobile news to China, in compliance with Chinese government censorship and surveillance requirements. Eight years ago, as Google pulled censored web search out of China, Sergey Brin explained the decision, saying: “in some aspects of [government] policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see some earmarks of totalitarianism.” Dragonfly and Google’s return to China raise urgent moral and ethical issues, the substance of which we are discussing elsewhere.

Here, we address an underlying structural problems: currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment. That the decision to build Dragonfly was made in secret, and progressed even with the AI Principles in place makes clear that the Principles alone are not enough. We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we’re building.

In the face of these significant issues, we, the undersigned, are calling for a Code Yellow addressing Ethics and Transparency, asking leadership to work with employees to implement concrete transparency and oversight processes, including the following:

1. An ethics review structure that includes rank and file employee representatives;

2. The appointment of ombudspeople, with meaningful input into their selection;

3. A clear plan for transparency sufficient to enable Googlers an individual ethical choice about what they work on; and

4. The publication of “ethical test cases”; an ethical assessment of Dragonfly, Maven ,and Airgap GCP with respect to the AI Principle; and regular, official, internally visible communications and assessments regarding any new areas of substantial ethical concern.