[iw] - Microsoft Bing’s Chinese Political Censorship of Autosuggestions in North America

[Richard Forno]

Microsoft Bing’s Chinese Political Censorship of Autosuggestions in 
North America

  By Jeffrey Knockel and Lotus Ruan
May 19, 2022

Read the report’s key findings in Simplified and Traditional Chinese
Key Findings

     We analyzed Microsoft Bing’s autosuggestion system for censorship 
of the names of individuals, finding that, outside of names relating to 
eroticism, the second largest category of names censored from appearing 
in autosuggestions were those of Chinese party leaders, dissidents, and 
other persons considered politically sensitive in China.
     We consistently found that Bing censors politically sensitive 
Chinese names over time, that their censorship spans multiple Chinese 
political topics, consists of at least two languages, English and 
Chinese, and applies to different world regions, including China, the 
United States, and Canada.
     Using statistical techniques, we preclude politically sensitive 
Chinese names in the United States being censored purely through random 
chance. Rather, their censorship must be the result of a process 
disproportionately targeting names which are politically sensitive in 
China.
     Bing’s Chinese political autosuggestion censorship applies not 
only to their Web search but also to the search built into Microsoft 
Windows as well as DuckDuckGo, which uses Bing autosuggestion data.
     Aside from Bing’s Chinese political censorship, many names also 
suffer from collateral censorship, such as Dick Cheney or others named 
Dick.

https://citizenlab.ca/2022/05/bada-bing-bada-boom-microsoft-bings-chinese-political-censorship-autosuggestions-north-america/
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