Google LLC this week revealed that the company has stopped working on Project Dragonfly, which was said to be an effort to build a censored version of its search engine specifically for China.

The revelation was made during a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing, where Karan Bhatia, Google’s vice president of public policy, simply stated: “We have terminated Project Dragonfly,” in response to a question from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri).

Google’s work on Project Dragonfly was unmasked about a year ago by the Intercept, which reported that the search engine would have first been offered as an Android app. It was reportedly designed to comply with China’s strict censorship rules, and would have blocked results from websites and search terms pertaining to issues such as democracy, human rights, peaceful protests and religion.

That kind of censorship is hugely controversial in the west, especially when it comes from a company as influential as Google. But Google also saw a big business opportunity in China, the world’s second-largest economy, where it has essentially been sidelined by local companies that are more willing to play by Beijing’s rules.

Once the plans for Project Dragonfly were revealed, Google came under pressure from U.S. government officials, human rights advocates and even its own employees to back down. Several hundred Google staffers, including many in senior positions, later signed a letter posted on Medium announcing their displeasure with the project:

“Our opposition to Dragonfly is not about China: we object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be,” the letter read.

That letter prompted Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai to respond that Google “was not close to launching a search product” in China. He reiterated that statement again in December, saying the company has “no plans to launch search in China,” though in both cases he refused to rule out doing so in future.

Analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Inc. told SiliconANGLE that although the pressure from its employees may have played a part in Google’s decision to drop the project, the political pressure it faced was probably the deciding factor.

“With the Trump administration playing tough on China and Congressional members from both parties blaming tech giants for various ills, walking away from Dragonfly was both wise and expedient,” King said.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE Google’s decision to drop Project Dragonfly could also have been influenced by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who was born in the Soviet Union, another totalitarian regime.

“Brin has made his reservations clear,” Mueller said. “The real question of course is, how does Google participate in the substantial Chinese advertisement market without its search engine?”

Google separately told Buzzfeed that work on Project Dragonfly has in any case been suspended for some time. It pointed to a statement it made to The Verge in March that said “no work is being undertaken on such a project” and that “team members have moved to new projects.”

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