https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/16/17707324/google-china-search-engine-censorship-response-meeting

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin have addressed the controversy over “Dragonfly,” reportedly an effort to re-enter the Chinese market with a news and search product, in an all-hands meeting with employees. Pichai described the effort as “exploratory” and in the “early stages,” according to a transcript obtained by Bloomberg. “We are not close to launching a search product in China,” he told employees. “And whether we would do so or could so is all very unclear.”

The Dragonfly project would reportedly involve censoring information in accordance with the Chinese government’s demands, which has prompted some employees to protest the company’s secrecy over the matter. “I think there are a lot of times when people are in exploratory stages where teams are debating and doing things, so sometimes being fully transparent at that stage can cause issues,” Pichai said, according to BuzzFeed News. “So I do think there are genuine issues teams are grappling with. We are as a company, I think, more committed to transparency than probably any company in the world.”