Bing Censors Image Search for 'Tank Man' Even in US

Bing, the search engine owned by Microsoft, is not displaying image results for a search for 'Tank man,' even when searching from the United States. The apparent censorship comes on the anniversary of China's violent crackdown on protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. From a report: 'There are no results for tank man,' the Bing website reads after searching for the term. 'Tank man' relates to the infamous image of a single protester standing in front of a line of Chinese tanks during the crackdown. China censors and blocks distribution of discussion of tank man and Tiananmen Square more generally. This year, anniversary events in Hong Kong have dwindled in size after authorities banned a vigil. Motherboard verified that the issue also impacts image searches on Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, which both use Bing.

UPDATE: 'This is due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this,' a Microsoft spokesperson told Gizmodo via email:

As of early Friday evening, searching for 'Tank Man' on Bing now returns many results — though the famous photograph only appears in passing in the form of a desktop wallpaper heavily modified to obscure the tanks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.