The insight of Google's expected relaunch in China with a censored search engine was heard just a day before. The latest updates suggest that the U.S. search giant is also developing a Chinese government-friendly censored news app.
What is Google's Censored News App?
According to The Independent, which was the first source to crack this spell, Google has already completed much of the development of this alleged news app. A whistleblower revealed relevant inner insights about this app and stated that Google is applying the similar technicalities for the censored news app as that of Toutiao, a popular news app in the whole of China developed by Chinese media startup ByteDance.
What updates to get from the app and how will it work?
This means that the app will utilize AI and algorithms to bring real-time news on the app for the readers, without the help of any real human editor, complying with the news and information filtering terms of Chinese government's censorship.
Toutiao has seen a wide range of popularity among the Chinese readers with nearly 120 million regular active subscribers of the app, according to Mashable. The number of daily users of the news app is increasing regularly. Google seems to target this market to become the single favorite destination for current affairs and updates with its next-gen censored news app. Sources even stated that Google is also in final talks with China's high command officials to get the approval for the censored news platform.
The Independent confirmed the inputs from three different sources, among which one said that the U.S. based search master has outlined the official release date for the censored news app before the unveiling of the censored China only search engine, codenamed 'dragonfly.' However, upon asking for Google's take on this the company authorities in aits all-time similar tone: "We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com. But we don't comment on speculation about future plans."
Few sources suggested that the search giant may release the news app by the end of this year. They even claimed that Google has certain other plans as well for its official get back in China.
