Microsoft’s Bing search engine was recently revealed to have actively censored search terms that were considered “sexually explicit” by Arab countries.
According to reports by the Open Net Initiative Microsoft’s search engine filtered out Arabic keywords such as “sex”, “porn”, “intercourse”, “breast”, “nude”, “whore” and “sadism”.
Any reference to homosexuality would also be filtered, terms such as “gay” and “lesbian” both in Arabic or English or in fact anything that could yield search results that could lead to “sexually explicit results”.
But in their effort to meet Arab standards just like what rival Google did for China, Microsoft did leave a loophole.
“Bing does not offer users of the ‘Arabian countries’ version the option to toggle SafeSearch on/off. This option is available for Bing instances tailored to some other countries,” said the ONI.
According to the report Bing doesn’t force search settings based on IP addresses, making it easier for the surfer to bypass filtering by choosing versions of the search engine intended for more freewheelin’ countries.
Whether this loophole was intentional or not Microsoft has been criticized for their “half-arsed targeted behaviour.”
“Microsoft has signalled its willingness to be at the forefront in protecting freedom of expression around the world. It is difficult to reconcile this position with Bing’s current filtering standards,” said the ONI.
