I wonder if anything else happens on the backend when a user attempts to say these banned words...

While other nations are condemning China for their actions in Hong Kong, once again, we see Google developing solutions for authoritarian regimes under the guise of "complying with local laws". More like complying with authoritarianism. Instead of joining the world to put pressure on China, Google is enabling them. Pretty shameful, I think.

This probably won't score any brownie points with the US government while they are being investigated (unless the gov't actually wants Google to do anything to get more integrated with China for intelligence reasons, which I could see as a possibility).