Dear FreeWeibo Supporters,



Our



What? Bing censoring search results in China? Of course they are. But we are not just talking about China here - we are talking about everywhere in the world where Bing operates. The US, UK, France, Germany, Brazil - everywhere. Microsoft and Bing are making sure that its customers worldwide are protected from information that China deems to be "harmful to the state".



When we concluded our testing we reached out to Microsoft on this issue only to get a "no comment" in return.



For this story, we strongly encourage everyone to do their own testing so that they can validate these results - use Google as a benchmark. What is most alarming is that it would appear that no matter where you use Bing in the world, unfavourable news and information about China is being filtered from your search results, especially if you are searching in Chinese.



The implications of this type of censorship are, frankly, mind boggling. We have seen that China may be effective at convincing foreign media to tone down their negative coverage of China (oftentimes in exchange for market access). But it is rare to see China interfering with what foreigners, living on foreign soil and using a foreign website, read about China.



As for Microsoft, nothing's a surprise when you are talking about gaining market access to China. But it is very much surprising that they would agree to this level of censorship.



This is the kind of story that begets a congressional hearing. We are 100% sure our findings indicate that Microsoft is cleansing search results in the United States to remove negative news and information about China. And they are doing this in every market in which they operate in the world. More than one government will take notice. And others will be asking - what other influential players are encouraging Microsoft to cleanse search? What information is being held back from customers?

It will come as no surprise to you if I say that we have news to share of China intensifying its assault on foreign media. But this story has an unusual and distressing twist.Our latest research indicates that Microsoft’s search engine Bing is censoring English and Chinese language search on its home page in order to exclude certain results. We have also noticed that Bing is practicing subtle censorship with search results. In both instances, Bing is filtering out links and stories that the Chinese authorities would deem damaging.What? Bing censoring search results in China? Of course they are. But we are not just talking about China here - we are talking about everywhere in the world where Bing operates. The US, UK, France, Germany, Brazil - everywhere. Microsoft and Bing are making sure that its customers worldwide are protected from information that China deems to be "harmful to the state".When we concluded our testing we reached out to Microsoft on this issue only to get a "no comment" in return.For this story, we strongly encourage everyone to do their own testing so that they can validate these results - use Google as a benchmark. What is most alarming is that it would appear that no matter where you use Bing in the world, unfavourable news and information about China is being filtered from your search results, especially if you are searching in Chinese.The implications of this type of censorship are, frankly, mind boggling. We have seen that China may be effective at convincing foreign media to tone down their negative coverage of China (oftentimes in exchange for market access). But it is rare to see China interfering with what foreigners, living on foreign soil and using a foreign website, read about China.As for Microsoft, nothing's a surprise when you are talking about gaining market access to China. But it is very much surprising that they would agree to this level of censorship.This is the kind of story that begets a congressional hearing. We are 100% sure our findings indicate that Microsoft is cleansing search results in the United States to remove negative news and information about China. And they are doing this in every market in which they operate in the world. More than one government will take notice. And others will be asking - what other influential players are encouraging Microsoft to cleanse search? What information is being held back from customers? As always, if you have any questions whatsoever, please feel free to contact me. Best, Charlie