Can Google week get any worseLess than a day after the revelation that it is planning a censored search engine for China, so comes another: the United States firm is said to be developing a government-friendly news app for thecountry, where its search engine and other services remain blocked.That according to The Information which reports that Google is essentially cloning Toutiao, the hugely popular app from new media startup ByteDance, in a bid to get back into the country and the minds of its 700 million mobile internet users.
Like Toutiao, the app would apparently use AI and algorithms to serve stories to readers — as opposed to real-life human editors — while it too would be designed to work within the bounds of Chinese internet censorship.That last part is interesting because ByteDance and other news apps have gotten into trouble from the governmentfor failing to adequately police the content shared on their platforms.
That resulted in some app store suspensions, but the saga itself is a rite of passage for any internet service that has gained mainstream option, so there a silver lining in there.
But the point for Google is that policing this content is not as easy as it may seem.The Information said the news app is slated for release before the search app, the existence of which was revealed yesterday, but sources told the publication that the ongoing United States -China trade war has made things complicated.
Specifically, Google executives have &struggled to further engage& China internet censor, a key component for the release of an app in China from an overseas company.There plenty of context to this, as I wrote yesterday:The Intercept report comes less than a week afterFacebook briefly received approval to operate a subsidiary on Chinese soil.
Its license was, however, revoked as news of the approval broke.
The company said it had planned to open an innovation center, but it isn''t clear whether that will be possible now.Facebook previously built a censorship-friendly toolthat could be deployed in China.While its United States peer has struggled to get a read on China,Google has been noticeably increasing its presence in the countryover the past year or so.The company hasopened an AI lab in Beijing, been part of investment rounds for Chinese companies,including a $550 million deal with JD.com, andinked a partnership with Tencent.
It has also launched products, witha file management service for Androiddistributed via third-party app stores and, most recently,its first mini program for Tencent popular WeChat messaging app.As for Google, the company pointed us to the same statement it issued yesterday:We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com.
But we don''t comment on speculation about future plans.Despite two-for-one value on that PR message, this is a disaster.
Plotting to collude with governments to censor the internet never goes down well, especially in double helpings.Google is reportedly planning a censorship-friendly search service for China