Rumours about the continued existence of Google’s prototype search engine, codenamed Project Dragonfly, have finally been laid to rest by Google executive Karan Bhatia, who told the US Senate Judiciary Committee, the project had been terminated.

“We have no plans to launch Search in China and there is no work being undertaken on such a project. To the extent we approach a position like that, I will be fully transparent, including with policymakers here, and engage and consult widely,” he said.

Buzzfeed, who initially reported the new comments, said this was the first time the company had publicly confirmed the project, which first came to light in 2018, had in fact been scrapped.

Described as “disturbing” by a former Google employee, Project Dragonfly has attracted much criticism from both within and outwith the company since it was first exposed in a report by The Intercept.

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The purpose of the project was to design and launch a censored version of Google’s search engine, that could operate with China’s strict censorship laws.

In 2010, the tech giant says it exited the country over targeted cyber attacks and because it felt China’s censorship requirements were not compatible with the company’s mission. Dragonfly was, therefore, a way for the company to regain its market dominance in China.

Critics accused Dragonfly of being a potential tool through which the Chinese government could monitor and censor netizen’s behaviour online.

According to documents released by The Intercept, Google engineers were working on ways to have the search engine automatically identify and filter out any websites blocked by China’s “Great Firewall” – this would include information on free speech, political opposition and anything contradicting the Chinese government.

Google employees protested the project in an open letter to senior management: ” Our opposition to Dragonfly is not about China: we object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be,” said the 346 employees in the open letter.

“Providing the Chinese government with ready access to user data, as required by Chinese law, would make Google complicit in oppression and human rights abuses.”

As more worrying details about the project emerged, Amnesty International organised a protest against it, while Congress had Google boss Sundar Pichai summoned for questioning.

Amnesty Internation’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo, said at the time, “Going ahead with Project Dragonfly would represent a massive capitulation on human rights by one of the world’s most powerful companies.”

Despite confirming the termination of the project, Bhatia did not commit that Google would not in the future, engage in censorship in China.