Microsoft is facing accusations of censorship as users the world over are unable to bring up pictures of the Tiananmen “tank man.”
“Tank man” is a search term often used to bring up pictures of a man facing off against a line of tanks during the demonstrations in China’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. With it being the anniversary of that event, people are naturally turning online to look up old images.
Microsoft, however, doesn’t appear to be showing the picture, leading some to believe it is censoring results to appease Chinese authorities. Microsoft has denied the accusation to Reuters, saying it was “due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this.”
Interestingly, DuckDuckGo is also not showing any pictures. The privacy search engine relies on results from Bing, and is therefore impacted too.
Google, meanwhile, is still showing applicable results.