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Google's secret effort to develop a censored search product for China has reportedly sparked a few employees to resign in protest.

Among the employees is Jack Poulson, a Google senior research scientist who left the company on August 31, according to The Intercept. "I view our intent to capitulate to censorship and surveillance demands in exchange for access to the Chinese market as a forfeiture of our values," Poulson reportedly wrote in his resignation letter to Google.

Poulson told The Intercept he is one of about five employees to resign over the tech giant's attempt to re-enter the Chinese market with the censored search product. Codenamed Dragonfly, the product is being designed as an Android app that'll filter out content relating to human rights, democracy, and peaceful protest — all topics that the Chinese government often censor to stamp out dissent.

So far, Google has declined to comment on Project Dragonfly and on the reported resignations. Back in 2010, the company largely exited the Chinese market after trying to adhere to the country's strict policies on online censorship. Since then, China has only expanded its approach to content blocking, but the country now ranks as one of the biggest tech markets in the world.

Project Dragonfly was reportedly only known to a few hundred Google employees. But last month, staffers began objecting to the secret project when The Intercept first reported on the product's details back in early August. To protest, over 1,000 employees reportedly signed an internal letter, which called on Google to adopt greater "transparency and oversight" with its upcoming products.

Poulson himself didn't work on Dragonfly, but his work involved improving the accuracy of Google's search systems. "There are serious worldwide repercussions to this," he told The Intercept. "What are Google's ethical red lines? We already wrote some down, but now we seem to be crossing those. I would really like to see statements about what Google's commitments are."

The resignations occur mere months after several other Google staffers reportedly left the company over its involvement in a Pentagon project to use AI to analyze drone footage. Following the resignations, Google decided to stop its work on the Pentagon project.