More than a dozen tech NGOs and human rights groups have issued an open letter calling on Google to stop work on a censored search engine project in China.



Organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, and others released the letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday, saying the tech giant’s plans to release a censored version of its search engine app to users in China represent an “alarming capitulation by Google on human rights.”



The project, dubbed Dragonfly, has already led to huge internal dissent at Google.

At an all-hands staff meeting earlier this month, Google executives abruptly stopped discussing Dragonfly — first reported by the Intercept earlier this month — when it became apparent some employees were sharing details with the press.

According to audio of that staff meeting, obtained by the New York Times, Pichai said that “if we were to do our mission well, we are to think seriously about how to do more in China.”

However, he went on to say that Google was “not close to launching a search product in China.”

Despite the reports, Google has not responded publicly to news of the plans, saying it does not comment on speculation.

Tom Mackey, media manager for Amnesty International’s East Asia office, said in an email that “by accommodating the Chinese authorities’ repression of dissent, Google would be actively participating in those violations for millions of internet users in China.”