According to The Citizen Lab, Microsoft censors autofill suggestions for queries about Chinese politicians. An extensive statistical breakdown demonstrates that Microsoft appears to ignore certain searches based on politics. According to the report, the methodology used to obtain figures eliminates the possibility of random censorship.
The reported censorship revolves around whether Bing displays suggested searches after a user has begun typing. For example, if you typed “Surface,” Bing would suggest queries like “Surface Pro” and “Surface Laptop 4.”
According to The Citizen Lab, Bing does not recommend any Chinese politicians or topics that the Chinese government may consider controversial.
The report does not analyze search results, instead focusing on which words or phrases Bing will autofill suggestions for.
In its report, the Citizen Lab describes its methodology in great detail. The Citizen Lab chose names that were categorized to see which ones were censored by Bing. For example, 93.8 percent of the censored names are Chinese political, whereas only 9.2 percent of the non-censored names are.
For a variety of reasons, names can be censored. According to Citizen Lab, Bing frequently does not show autosuggestions for names associated with eroticism or pornography. Other types of names, such as people with the same name as a celebrity, can also be censored. Curse words can also prevent Bing from displaying autofill suggestions.
Nevertheless, the report claims that the lack of autofill suggestions when entering political or controversial text is not due to the aforementioned causes.
Bing did not show autofill suggestions for several politicians whose names were written in Chinese characters, according to the researchers. In contrast, the names of pornstars were the most frequently censored in English letters.
Dick Van Dyke was the sixth-most censored name in the United States English local, presumably due to Bing censoring suggestions that included the word “dick.”
It’s worth noting that the lack of autofill suggestions appears to occur in several regions, including the United States and Canada, rather than just in mainland China. According to the report, such alleged censorship cannot be confined to a single location.
Microsoft famously blocked searches for “tank man,” the protester’s nickname in Tiananmen Square, in 2021. According to the company, the blockage was caused by “accidental human error.”
