Google has stopped the development of the Dragonfly search engine, which was planned to be implemented in China instead of the regular version of the company’s search engine, Engadget reports.

“The controversial Google Dragonfly project has been officially canceled. At the Senate Judicial Committee this week, Google’s Vice President of Public Policy, Karan Bhatia, said China’s censored search engine has been discontinued. Later, a company spokeswoman confirmed that Google has no plans to launch a search engine in China, and that no work is underway on such a project”, — the publication notes.

A document leak indicated that a search application targeted at China should automatically identify web pages blocked in the country and remove them from the search results. This would include information on freedom of speech and political opposition, as well as any negative references to authoritarian governments, Engadget writes.

“Although Google confirmed that it was working on a project codenamed Dragonfly, the company did not provide any details about it, except that its development is going well. However, Dragonfly faced a global backlash as more details about the project came up: Amnesty International organized a protest against the project, and Congress questioned Google’s boss Sundar Pichai on the subject”, — Engadget said.