Advocacy groups criticize Google's 'alarming capitulation' over censored China search engine

More than a dozen human rights groups and other advocacy organizations urged Google to abandon any plans to build a censored version of its search engine in China. The project, said to be referred to internally as Dragonfly, 'would represent an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights,' argued a letter signed by 14 groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders. The letter is addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and comes after weeks of internal revolt at the company, wherein employees have expressed outrage over the firm's rumored plans to launch a censored search engine in China. While China is home to the world's largest number of internet users, a 2015 report by US think tank Freedom House found that the country had the most restrictive online use policies of 65 nations it studied, ranking below Iran and Syria. But China has maintained that its various forms of web censorship are necessary for protecting its national security.