"Don't be evil" has transformed from a mantra into a plea.

A group of Google employees published an open letter to their employer on Tuesday, calling for an end to Google's planned censored Chinese search engine. The 11 co-signees are mostly engineers and joined Amnesty International's day of action criticizing Google's creation of the censored search engine. 

Amnesty International, Google employees, and experts say that it would enable human rights abuses in China, and potentially help codify a censored internet in other countries that demand it.

"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 Google employees wrote.

Employee protests

 on how Google handled sexual misconduct incidents, and a larger culture of discrimination at Google, recently prompted changes to Google's sexual abuse reporting and other processes. 

That same impact of employee voices on Google policy might not apply when it comes to Project Dragonfly. But that's not stopping Google employees and advocates from trying.

"Google is too powerful not to be held accountable," the employees wrote. "We deserve to know what we’re building and we deserve a say in these significant decisions."