INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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
