Why Google's Rumored Return to China's Censored Screens Isn't a Game-Changer

Eight years after their very public falling out, could China and Google be pals once again? Whispers circulating Monday, first reported by The Intercept, suggested that Google would soon launch a Chinese version of its search engine that will kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party by scrubbing various bête noires: not least criticism of its human-rights record, calls for Tibetan independence and the bloodshed around Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Free speech advocates have condemned the rumors, which have since been confirmed by anonymous Google sources to other media. Amnesty International warned complying with the Great Firewall -- the world's most sophisticated state-censorship apparatus, employing at least 2 million online censors -- would constitute "a gross attack on freedom of information and internet freedom." It would also mean Google would have to block search results in China for currently verboten Western media, such as the New York Times, Bloomberg and, indeed, TIME.