谷歌员工抗议为中国开发审查版搜索引擎
上千名谷歌员工对公司决定秘密为中国打造一个审查版搜索引擎感到不满，签署了一封信，要求公司提高透明度，以便他们了解自己工作的道德后果。
In the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times, employees wrote that the project and Google’s apparent willingness to abide by China’s censorship requirements “raise urgent moral and ethical issues.” They added, “Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment.”
在《纽约时报》获得的这封信件中，员工们写道，该项目和谷歌对遵守中国审查要求的明显意愿“引发了紧迫的道德和伦理问题”。他们还补充说，“目前我们没有所需的信息，无法对我们的工作、项目和就业做出符合道德规范的决定。”
The letter is circulating on Google’s internal communication systems and is signed by about 1,400 employees, according to three people familiar with the document, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
据了解这份文件的三位知情人士透露，这封信正在谷歌的内部通讯系统中传播，有大约1400名员工联署。
The internal activism presents another obstacle for Google’s potential return to China eight years after the company publicly withdrew from the country in protest of censorship and government hacking. China has the world’s largest internet audience but has frustrated American tech giants with content restrictions or outright blockages of services including Facebook and Instagram.
为抗议审查和政府黑客攻击，谷歌公开退出了中国市场，如今，公司内部的激进主义为它重返中国的可能性带来了另一个障碍。中国拥有世界上最大的互联网用户群体，但因其内容限制，以及对Facebook和Instagram等服务的直接封锁，令美国科技巨头们感到失望。
It is also the latest example of how Google’s outspoken work force has agitated for changes to strategy. In April, the internet company’s employees spoke out against its involvement in a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to improve weaponry. By June, Google had said it would not renew a contract with the Pentagon for A.I. work.
谷歌员工一向直言不讳，积极推动公司战略变革，这只是最新的例证。今年4月，这家互联网公司的员工公开反对它参与五角大楼一项利用人工智能改进武器的项目。到6月，谷歌已表示不会与五角大楼续签人工智能工作合同。
Google’s interest in bringing search back to China came to the forefront earlier this month, when reports surfaced that the company was working on a search app that restricts content banned by Beijing. The project, known internally as Dragonfly, was developed largely in secret, prompting outrage among employees who worried they had been unwittingly working on technology that would help China withhold information from its citizens.
本月早些时候，谷歌将其搜索引擎带回中国的意向成为关注焦点，有报道称，该公司正在开发一款限制北京禁止内容的搜索应用程序。这个内部称为“蜻蜓”(Dragonfly)的项目大部分是秘密开发的，这引起了员工的愤慨，他们担心自己在无意中所做的技术工作会帮助中国向公民隐瞒信息。
“We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table, and a commitment to clear and open processes: Google employees need to know what we’re building,” the letter said.
“我们迫切需要更多的透明度，在决策中的一席之地，并承诺清晰和开放的流程：谷歌员工需要知道我们正在建设什么，”信中说。
The letter also called on Google to allow employees to participate in ethical reviews of the company’s products, to appoint external representatives to ensure transparency and to publish an ethical assessment of controversial projects. The document referred to the situation as a “code yellow,” a process used in engineering to address critical problems that impact several teams.
这封信还呼吁谷歌允许员工参与公司产品的道德评估，任命外部代表以确保透明度，并公开有争议项目的道德评估。这封信将这种情况称为“黄色代码”，这是一种用于解决影响多个团队关键问题的工程流程。
Google declined to comment on the letter. It has said in the past that it will not comment on Dragonfly or “speculation about future plans.”
谷歌拒绝对这封信发表评论。它曾表示不会评价“蜻蜓”或“对未来计划的猜测”。
Employees are expected to press management about Dragonfly at a weekly staff meeting on Thursday. As of late Wednesday, one of the top questions on an internal software system called Dory, which lets employees vote for the questions that executives should answer at the meeting, asked whether Google has lost its ethical compass, said employees familiar with the letter. Other questions on Dory asked directly about the Dragonfly project and specific information that may be censored by the Chinese government, such as air pollution data.
预计员工将在周四的每周员工会议上对管理层就“蜻蜓”问题施压。据知情人士透露，谷歌有一个名为多利(Dory)的内部软件系统，用来让员工投票选出高管应该在每周会议上回答什么问题，截至周三晚些时候，位居榜首的问题之一是，谷歌是否已经失去了道德的指南针。“多利”上的其他问题直接针对“蜻蜓”项目，以及可能遭到中国政府审查的具体信息，例如空气污染数据。
This week’s staff meeting will be the first opportunity for Google’s work force to ask executives about Dragonfly since the meeting was not held last week. The absence of a gathering — the result of a regularly scheduled break in the summer, according to company spokesman Rob Shilkin — led to fears among employees that leadership was becoming less transparent following several controversies over Google’s government work.
由于上周的员工会议未能举行，本周的员工会议将是谷歌员工第一次有机会向管理人员询问有关“蜻蜓”的问题。据公司发言人罗伯·希尔金(Rob Shilkin)的说法，上周没开会是因为定期的暑期休假——员工担心，经过几次谷歌政府工作的争议，谷歌管理层变得不那么透明了。
Historically, Google has been more responsive to employee concerns and more transparent about future projects and inner workings than other major technology companies, inviting questions from workers at its staff meetings and encouraging internal debate.
传统上，与其他大型科技公司相比，谷歌对员工的关切回应更加积极，对未来项目及内部运转也更为透明，会在员工会议上请员工提问，鼓励内部进行讨论。
The internal dissent over Dragonfly comes on the heels of the employee protests over Google’s involvement in the Pentagon project to use artificial intelligence. After Google said it would not renew its contract with the Pentagon, it unveiled a series of ethical principles governing its use of A.I.
就在围绕“蜻蜓”的内部异议发生之前，员工对公司参与五角大楼使用人工智能项目进行了抗议。谷歌表示不会与五角大楼续签合约后，公布了一系列对人工智能使用的伦理指导原则。
In those principles, Google publicly committed to only use A.I. in “socially beneficial” ways that would not cause harm and promised to develop its capabilities in accordance with human rights law. Some employees have raised concerns that helping China suppress the free flow of information would violate these new principles.
在这些原则中，谷歌公开承诺仅以不会造成伤害的“对社会有益”的方式使用人工智能，并且保证会根据人权法律提升其能力。一些雇员担忧，帮助中国压制信息的自由流动违反了这些新原则。
In 2010, Google said it had discovered that Chinese hackers had attacked the company’s corporate infrastructure in an attempt to access the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. The attack, combined with government censorship, propelled Google to pull its search engine from the country.
2010年，谷歌表示发现中国黑客为了进入人权活动人士的Gmail账户，攻击该公司的基础设施。这次攻击，加上政府审查制度，促使谷歌将搜索引擎撤出中国。
The exit from China was a seminal moment for the company — a symbol of its uncompromising idealism captured by Google’s unofficial motto of “Don’t Be Evil.” At the time, Chinese internet users marked the loss of Google’s search engine by laying flowers at the company’s Beijing offices in what became known as an “illegal flower tribute.” A possible re-entry to China, according to current and former employees, is a sign of a more mature and pragmatic company.
退出中国对这家公司来说是一个有着重大影响的时刻——是谷歌决不妥协的理想主义的标志，“不作恶”这个非正式的公司格言就是对其最好的说明。当时，中国的网民在该公司的北京办公室献花，纪念中国失去了谷歌搜索引擎，这个事件被称为“非法献花”。据前员工及现员工表示，重新进入中国的可能是谷歌成为一家更成熟、更务实公司的标志。
Google has maintained a significant presence in China even though its flagship services are not accessible in the country. Last year, Google announced plans for a research center in China focused on artificial intelligence. And it has introduced translation and file management apps for the Chinese market. Google now has more than 700 employees in China.
虽然旗舰服务在中国都不可用，但谷歌仍在这个国家保持着重要地位。去年，谷歌宣布计划在中国设立一家专注人工智能的研究中心。此外，谷歌还将翻译及文件管理应用程序引入中国市场。谷歌目前在中国有超过700名雇员。
Google’s work on Dragonfly is not a guarantee that its search engine will be welcomed back to China. The government would have to approve its return and it has kept American technology firms like Facebook at arm’s length, opting instead to work closely with homegrown internet behemoths.
谷歌在“蜻蜓”方面的工作并不能保证其搜素引擎会受到欢迎回到中国。这得经过中国政府的批准，而它已经把像Facebook这样的美国科技企业拒之门外，选择与本土的互联网巨头密切合作。
Some employees are in favor of re-entering China, arguing that exiting the country in protest of censorship has done little to pressure Beijing to change its position while it has made Google nonessential among the world’s largest base of internet users.
一些员工支持谷歌重返中国，认为抗议审查而退出这个国家，并没能让北京感受到改变其立场的压力，反而让谷歌在这个世界最大互联网用户基地变得无足轻重。
When Google pulled out of China in 2010, Sergey Brin, the company’s co-founder, said it objected to the country’s “totalitarian” policies when it came to censorship, political speech and internet communications. If anything, China has only tightened its controls in the last eight years — leaving the company in a bind for how to justify its return.
当谷歌2010年退出中国时，该公司联合创始人谢尔盖·布林(Sergey Brin)表示，谷歌反对中国在审查、政治言论及互联网交流方面的“极权”政策。如果说有什么变化的话，中国在过去八年里更加收紧了控制——让该公司在如何证明其回归的合理性方面陷入困境。
“You can never satisfy a censor, particularly the ones in China,” said Charles Mok, member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council who advocates for information technology and who is affiliated with the territory’s democratic camp.
“你永远不能让审查者满意，尤其是中国的审查者，”香港立法会议员莫乃光(Charles Mok)表示，他是信息科技的倡导者，属于民主阵营。
Google is probably facing intense pressure to introduce more of its products in China, Mr. Mok said, but added that the company would lend legitimacy to government censorship if it debuted a censored search product in China.
谷歌可能正面临将其更多产品引进中国的压力，莫乃光说，但他又补充，如果在中国推出经过审查的搜索产品，这家公司可能会为政府审查提供合法性。
“Then the Chinese government can say, ‘Google is O.K. with it too,’” he said.
“然后中国政府就可以说，‘谷歌都觉得没问题，’”他说。
