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Is it Possible to Run Bing in China?

Is it possible to run Bing in China? Obviously, you can, but it requires certain limitations in place. This article will discuss some of these limitations and what they mean for people using Bing in China. Also, we'll look at some of the data that can be gathered to understand how the censorship of search results affects the behavior of people using Bing.

Microsoft can run Bing in China with limitations in place

Microsoft is a major technology company that offers the Bing platform. This platform is free and allows users to browse the internet from a foreign country. But, Bing may not be available in all countries.

The Chinese government uses censorship as an information control strategy. Search engines, social media sites, and other tech services are all subject to the Chinese government's censorship policies. Several services, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are not available in China.

According to an article in the New York Times, the Chinese government has begun to crack down on Twitter users in increasing numbers. In September, Chinese authorities banned Twitch, a video game service, from the country's internet.

One of the most recent restrictions was the suspension of a feature on Bing that would automatically suggest search terms. This autofill function is part of a broader effort by the Chinese government to censor the internet.

However, even though Bing is still used in the country, it is no longer accessible to mainland Chinese users. Earlier this week, users began to report that they were unable to access the site. Despite this, Microsoft has yet to reveal the reason for the outage.

Some users have reported that Bing is again accessible from the mainland, while others have stated that they were able to access the service using a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN connects your computer to a remote server, which reroutes your data through a secure, encrypted network.

In addition to being restricted to the mainland, Bing also suffered a technical issue last June. It was censoring image searches for the phrase "tank man" even from the U.S. Despite this, it is still one of the top 10 most popular search engines in China.

Even though Bing is not completely unavailable in China, it is likely that it will soon be shut off entirely. Microsoft is only allowed to operate in the country if it complies with Chinese laws and regulations. If this occurs, there is a risk that the company could be prohibited from doing business in the country.

Censorship of politically sensitive Chinese names

Bing, a search engine owned by Microsoft, is censoring politically sensitive Chinese names. The names of prominent Chinese Communist Party leaders and dissidents are not reflected in autofill suggestions.

A recent study from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab found that Bing autofills failed to include names of influential Chinese party and government figures. Researchers analyzed over a million names in Chinese characters and found that more than six percent were censored. These names included the late Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who was a co-founder of the Communist Party, as well as the names of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

This censorship was not limited to mainland China. Names were also censored in English. Specifically, the politically sensitive English letter names of current events, politicians, scandals, and current events were censored. However, in English, the level of censorship was not as high as the censorship of Chinese character names.

As part of its analysis, Citizen Lab tested the Bing autofill system for thousands of names. They discovered that 93.8% of the censored names came from the United States. It was also determined that the process used to censor the names did not result in a random chance.

Researchers believe that there is a complex system behind the censorship of sensitive Chinese political names. Because of this, there may not be consistent censorship. Even though Microsoft claims the issue is a "technical error", the censorship appears to be widespread.

For example, the top 10 most censored names included the words "political," "eroticism," and "party." Several of these names were politically sensitive in both English and Chinese. In addition, the names of Chinese dissidents, as well as the words "tank man," "Tiananmen Square," and "human rights activist," did not appear in autofill.

There are many reasons for censorship. Those reasons vary from country to country. One reason may be that the censorship operations are done in compliance with legal restrictions in China. Another reason could be that the censorship efforts in one country can have an impact on users in other countries.

Analysis of search volume data to understand how autosuggestions and their censorship influence search behavior

Search engines are important interfaces for users. Autosuggestions play an important role in helping users to find what they are looking for quickly. Some autosuggestions also include useful information, such as how to spell a word.

Bing has censored Chinese autosuggestions in some regions, such as the United States and China. This may affect the search behavior of Chinese users.

Bing's developers have likely been trained to adhere to Chinese regulations and rules. They may not have known that their software was actually censoring content. However, Microsoft has denied any wrongdoing. It is also possible that the censorship was the result of an accidental human error.

As the name suggests, autosuggestions are suggestions of the most likely query. These suggestions are based on queries that are frequently typed into a search engine. Most autosuggestions provide useful information, such as how to spell Xi Jinping's name.

However, some names are censored merely because they are politically sensitive. In addition, some locales cluster autosuggestions based on their English language content. For example, the United States and China may have the same name, but the autosuggestions in the former are more useful.

The name "xijinping" does not appear in Bing's suggested keywords, but the autosuggestions associated with it do. This is the first instance of a search engine's autosuggestions affecting the search behavior of Chinese users.

Microsoft's censorship of search autosuggestions has affected the way Chinese users search for content. During the 30 days in December 2021 that Microsoft was blocking autosuggestions in China, users who tried to use Bing's search function to find information about the Falun Gong movement did not get their results. Users who searched for the Falun Gong's name did, however, find that they were not presented with trend data.

However, there is no evidence that Bing's censorship has affected the actual quantity of free speech that users enjoy. There is no proof that the censorship is linked to concessions made by Microsoft to the Chinese government. Rather, the censorship is the result of an algorithmic process targeting politically sensitive names.

Conclusion

Microsoft has had to face some criticism over its role in China's censorship. The software giant has been under pressure since its Bing search engine was blocked in December 2014. This was the second such suspension. But it is unclear why.

In the past, Microsoft's Bing had been largely dependent on compliance with China's censorship policies. A study published by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab found that Microsoft's search engine is censoring names associated with political topics in China. Specifically, it censors words associated with eroticism, dissidents and party leaders.

The study examined the autosuggestion system of the search engine, which helps people make educated guesses about what they are looking for after a few keystrokes. Researchers typed in searches for various Chinese political topics in both Mandarin and English, and analyzed the results.

Results were categorized into four categories. They were named "dissidents," "eroticism," "party leaders," and "the word of others." Among the top two, the first category contains words related to eroticism, the second relates to words of dissidents.

Bing also censors sensitive Chinese names. Its autofill system, for example, did not connect users to the names of Chinese dissidents, even after several keystrokes.

The Chinese government has been more aggressive in suppressing internal dissent. However, Bing has managed to stay afloat because of the government's cooperation. Nevertheless, there are still problems with the product today.

Microsoft's Bing was the only foreign search engine available in China. In order to compete with local government-connected services, the company needed to comply with censorship regulations.

As a result, the company was caught up in the ongoing censorship crackdown in Beijing. Although Microsoft has complied with the censorship laws, the company risks being banned from doing business in China.

According to Jeffrey Knockel, senior research associate at the Citizen Lab, this is a serious problem. The company may have difficulty getting its products off the ground. There is a risk that the rules will spread and become more stringent. Therefore, Microsoft may have to consider a strict bifurcation of its product.

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