Google Is Aiding China's War On Muslim Uighurs And Its Citizens
By Aaron Kesel
China has introduced what it calls "re-education camps" for Muslims, and Google is helping China to suppress the freedom of speech of Muslims, Business Insider reported.
Google will more than likely have to facilitate speech suppression for Muslims within "Project Dragonfly." This is due to new laws passed this week on how to crack down on the ethnic minority in Xinjiang, China of 11 million Uighurs. The total package includes the use of heavy surveillance, policing, and censorship from tech companies online.
According to Business Insider, Article 28 of the new laws orders telecommunications operators to "put in place monitoring systems and technological prevention measures for audio, messages, and communication records" that may have "extremifying information."
Forms of "extremification," as laid out in the laws, are vague. They include "interfering" with people's ability to interact with people of other ethnicities or faiths and "rejecting or refusing public goods and services."
More recently, human rights organizations have accused China of imprisoning up to 1 million Uighurs in detention or "re-education" camps, where survivors have described being tortured.In August, United Nations human rights experts called for China to shut down its “re-education camps” for Muslim Uighurs and others that break its laws. The UN group further ordered the immediate release of those detained on the “pretext of countering terrorism.”
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination cited estimates that “from tens of thousands to upwards of a million Uighurs” may be detained in the far western Xinjiang province.
A coalition of 14 human rights organizations even wrote a public letter to Google CEO urging that "Google risks becoming complicit in the Chinese government's repression of freedom of speech and other human rights in China."
China has denied the existence of such camps but earlier this week a revised local law encouraged "vocational skill education training centers" to "carry out anti-extremist ideological education."
Last week, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence expressed anger at Google's plans in China with project Dragonfly, stating "Google should immediately end development of the 'Dragonfly' app that will strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers."
Congress (16 Democrats and Republicans) expressed that there are “serious concerns” over the move to create a censored Internet search engine in China, according to Reuters.A group of senators, including Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden, previously sought answers from Google over its proposed China product.
Because of this, at a recent speech former Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that the Internet will split in two into Chinese-led and US-led versions within the next decade, CNBC reported.
Just a few hundred of Google’s massive 88,000 employees were briefed on the project known as “Dragonfly” prior to the revelations, which triggered massive blowback against the company in a move seen as capitulating to the Chinese Communist government and censorship.
The Intercept reported that after the Dragonfly leak Google responded by trying to shut down and limit its employees’ access to documents that contained information about the China censorship project, according to Google company insiders.
Despite all these human rights abuse worries, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai has still defended the decision with a speech on the matter earlier this week.
"Entering China in some ways aligns with the company’s mission to provide information to the world’s population, since one-fifth of those people reside in China. Even complying with China’s censors, he said, Google would be able to deliver search results to more than 99% of queries and in some cases deliver more helpful results than users currently get from local search engine," Pichai said according to MarketWatch.
In May, Activist Post reported that Google had removed multiple references to its old catchphrase “Don’t be evil” from its Code of Conduct. Employees expressed outrage over the company’s decision to work with the Pentagon’s Project Maven, including signing a petition, with some even quitting.
This caused Google to walk back the plans, denouncing support for Maven by stating that the company would not be renewing the military contract and would stop in 2019.
However, as Activist Post reported, the agreement was already signed, so the company is locked in for another year until the contract runs out in March 2019. Google can then legally stop assisting the government with the advancement of artificial intelligence for use with its drones, a nightmarish scenario that brings glimpses of the movie The Terminator to mind.
There was also a leaked 2016 video to The Verge entitled “The Selfish Ledger” from within Google X exposing internal Google dialogue to create a dystopia run by the big social giant. The revelation showcased the other big problem the company faces — questions about harvesting its users’ data.
With that leak, the company’s dystopian future it seeks to achieve is exposed, as the 9-minute video goes on to describe how Google could keep a ledger of all human behavior and then use it to manipulate your decisions and those of future generations. All with the ultimate goal of pushing the company’s values, offering services and products, and basically dictating the behavior of entire populations.
The video was dismissed as just a concept “meant to provoke discussion,” but offers a rare glimpse into the types of conversations and the views the company might be having, as well as aligning with many of Google’s existing products that use AI; for example, suggesting routes in Google Maps, organizing albums in Google Photos, and even composing automated emails in Gmail.
Pichai’s leadership has taken Google in a completely different direction. Even employees have lashed out against the company, protesting recent decisions by Pichai and other executives to work with China and the U.S. military under Project Maven.
It appears that Google's true mission is being exposed with ongoing leaks coming out of the company that reveal secret collusive dealings with governments like the U.S. and China.
Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.
Thank you for bringing attention to this, not only the threat of China but China's human rights violations against Muslims. Great Piece!
I've been planning to do an article on China's repression of Xinjiang for some time now, but I've been too busy with... well, China's litany of other misdeeds.
It's good to know someone has shined a light on it.