Top U.S. General Criticizes Google For Working With China And Not With The U.S.

By Aaron Kesel

The Chinese military was indirectly benefiting from the work Alphabet Inc’s Google was doing in China with Project Dragonfly, according to top U.S. General Joseph Dunford, Dailymail reported.

The United States’ top general has claimed that Google‘s work in China is ‘indirectly benefiting the Chinese military’.

Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hit out at the search engine giant as he spoke during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday.

‘We watch with great concern when industry partners work in China knowing that there is that indirect benefit,’ he said.

‘Frankly, “indirect” may be not a full characterization of the way it really is, it is more of a direct benefit to the Chinese military.’

Google’s project Dragonfly was initiated in spring of 2017 and was expedited following a December 2017 meeting between Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, according to The Intercept.

Dragonfly involved plans to implement a censored version of Google’s search engine inside China, and Google sought to suppress the internal memo about it. Further, if that’s not enough, the company wanted phone numbers linked to the searches.

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 blow-back against the company in a move seen as capitulating to the Chinese Communist government and censorship.

The Intercept reported that after the 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.

Employees from  Google opposed the controversial plan devised by executives within protesting the decision as Activist Post reported.  Company employees even signed a public petition urging cancellation of the project. “We deserve to know what we’re building and we deserve a say in these significant decisions,” the petition said.

In May of last year, Activist Post reported that Google had removed multiple references to its old catchphrase “Don’t be evil” from its Code of Conduct; as employees expressed outrage over the company’s decision to work with the Pentagon’s Project Maven, including signing a petition and 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 this 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.

In October of last year, Google suffered another leak when Breitbart revealed an internal memo 85-page briefing entitled “The Good Censor,” which advised tech companies to “police tone instead of content” and to not “take sides” when censoring users as this author wrote.

This must be why Activist Post remains censored on YouTube and the wrongful suspension still hasn’t been removed, along with other accounts that were removed, or further why Iran has had 39 YouTube channels deleted. It must be Google’s “new position as ‘moderators in chief.’” (page 70)

The document, which can be read in full at Breitbart, admits in writing that big Silicon Valley companies including Google have shifted toward censoring users, moving away from their original values. Moreover, the mission to “create an unmediated ‘marketplace of ideas’” has become a plan by tech companies to “create well-ordered spaces for safety and civility.” (page 67)

As former Google PR rep Jessica Powell expressed, this is “creating serious problems in disguise of bettering the world.”

“We go about saying that we’re building these amazing things and doing great things for the world but we’re also causing a lot of serious problems,” Powell said.

General Joseph Dunford previously lambasted Google prior in December of last year when he criticized the search giant for not working with the U.S. military.

“I’m not sure that people at Google will enjoy a world order that is informed by the norms and standards of Russia or China,” Dunford said

Even U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has 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.

Google told Congress it has “no plans” to relaunch a search engine in China during a Congressional hearing in December, though it is continuing to study the idea according to a recent report by The Intercept where employees leaked there had been 400 code changes between January and February of this year.

These leaks offer 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.

But all this is awesome news for competitors like Presearch who are seeking to take away Google’s monopolized dominance on search by giving back to their users and allowing users more control over their own data. Presearch is seeking the ultimate goal of completely decentralizing searches, which will allow an unbiased search engine that just works, and rewards you as a Presearch Community member or Presearcher for using it in the PRE cryptocurrency.

I am not sure what’s worse — Google capitulating to the U.S. government and its artificial intelligence program, or creating a censored version of its search engine which during the election was biased in support of Hillary Clinton (the candidate Google’s CEO donated to.) Which, hilariously enough, according to a Google insider, the company didn’t deny.

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.