Boycott Microsoft Bing

Critics have accused President Obama of kowtowing to Chinese leaders, by failing to meet dissidents, toning down his criticisms and delaying a meeting with the Dalai Lama. On balance, I think that criticism is premature: Confrontation doesn’t help with China and can hurt, and so engagement becomes a fine line to navigate. The Obama visit wasn’t a ringing success, but neither was it a craven embarrassment.

For the latest craven kowtowing, we can look somewhere else: Microsoft and its new search engine, Bing.

Western corporations have often behaved embarrassingly in China, sacrificing any principles to ingratiate themselves with the Communist Party authorities. Yahoo was the worst, handing over information about several email account holders so that they could be arrested – and then dissembling and defending its monstrous conduct. Now Microsoft is sacrificing the integrity of Bing searches so as to cozy up to State Security in Beijing. In effect, it has chosen become part of the Communist Party’s propaganda apparatus.

If you search a term on Bing that is politically sensitive in China, in English the results are legitimate. Search “Tiananmen” and you’ll find out about the army firing on pro-democracy protesters in 1989. Search Dalai Lama, Falun Gong and you also get credible results. Conduct the search in complex Chinese characters (the kind used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) and on the whole you still get authentic results.

But conduct the search with the simplified characters used in mainland China, then you get sanitized pro-Communist results. This is especially true of image searches. Magic! No Tiananmen Square massacre. The Dalai Lama becomes an oppressor. Falun Gong believers are villains, not victims.
What’s most offensive is that this is true wherever in the world the search is conducted – including in my office in New York. If Microsoft felt it had to bow to Chinese censorship within China’s borders, based on the IP address, that might be defensible. But when Microsoft skews its worldwide searches to make Hu Jintao feel better, that’s a disgrace. It becomes simply a unit of the Central Committee Propaganda Department.

(This is an issue with Google as well, but to a much lesser extent. Google censors results on its search engine used within China, google.cn, but offers mostly uncensored results using simplified Chinese characters on its worldwide browser, google.com. However, some searches on google.com, such as images for Falun Gong, are also censored.)

When I originally wrote about this issue back in June, Microsoft protested. “From what you described, that’s not the way Bing is supposed to work,” wrote Kevin Kutz, a company spokesman. He said that Chinese speakers at Microsoft could not replicate my results and did not detect this kind of skewed result. I sent screen shots, and then Microsoft acknowledged the issue but said that it was simply a temporary mistake. “It’s a bug,” Kutz told me. Later, he added: “What’s important is it’s getting fixed.” Soon, he said, Bing searches would be the same for Tiananmen and other sensitive subjects, whatever the language.

Six months later, the censorship continues. And now all of a sudden, it’s company policy.
Microsoft’s current position, which insults my intelligence and yours, is that there was indeed a bug of some kind and that that is fixed – but that searches in simplified characters continue to produce pro-Communist results because of the algorithms used. Mr. Kutz now asserts that a search in any given language emphasizes results from within the country that uses that language. Thus if you search in the simplified characters used within China, then you get disproportionately Chinese propaganda. Thus, he says, the explanation lies in the search algorithms, rather than in Microsoft policy.

Huh? How come that wasn’t the explanation in June? And if that’s the case, then why is there a marked difference between text and image searches? And in any case, why should Bing use an algorithm that results in propaganda and skews results far more than Google? Why isn’t Wikipedia higher on the results with simplified characters?

Of course, it’s possible that Microsoft executives in Redmond, since they can’t read Chinese, are being misled by those executives focused on the China business. Yet my hunch is that Microsoft simply has decided at a top level that it will compromise what principles it must to ingratiate itself with China. This presumably isn’t at China’s specific request: it’s unlikely that Chinese authorities would be so detailed in their demands, and it doesn’t negotiate over minor points like this. But China has made it clear that it dislikes search engines that lead to results it considers seditious, and it can block them.

Microsoft apparently doesn’t want to pursue the Google solution of having separate sites – one that produces generally legitimate results (google.com) and another within China that blatantly censors (google.cn). Instead, Bing figured it would have one site and just censor all the results in simplified Chinese characters. It then compounded the problem by dissembling and disguising its policy. That’s craven and embarrassing, it betrays the integrity of Microsoft searches, and for me it’s a reason to boycott Bing.

UPDATE: Microsoft has posted a measured response: //bit.ly/6CD49e . It notes that some Bing searches are not skewed even in simplified characters but acknowledges that image searches in particular are sanitized. It says that this is a bug that was identified today and that it will soon be fixed. That’s basically what I was told last June, and I’m very skeptical.

UPDATE 2: For those asking for specific terms, and specific search results, here are some examples by date.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

r edsley neoson daniel November 20, 2009 · 3:05 pm

the iron curtain will be brought down sooner or later! on step at a time.

Please seek clarifications from Microsoft on this. Our only weapon against them is our wallet. I for one will not use Bing until I get a clear answer from Microsoft.

This is disturbing on so many levels, but it’s also short-sighted on Microsoft’s part. Bill and Melinda Gate have done so much to help the developing world, it seems ironic that in an effort to compete with Google, Bing wouldn’t take their product development far enough to protect freedom of speech and fair use.

Mr. Kristof,

Your aims are noble, but I think you may not be thinking big enough. Consider Nestle. When it became obvious that that company was contributing to infantile diarrhea in the third world, and thus to infant mortality, and doing nothing about it, the response from the concerned was not to boycott Nestle baby formula, but rather all Nestle products. So if you want to harm Microsoft, boycotting Bing is not the way to do it. Their market share is at best 10%. Instead, you, with your column which is read by so many, should urge people to boycott the two pillars of Microsoft’s revenue mill – Windows and Office.

Neither is necessary, after all. One can get a Mac, true, but one can also, far more cheaply, (free, in fact) go to ubuntu.com and download easy to use Linux, complete with Open Office, a free office suite. Open Office is available for Windows and Mac too, so there is absolutely no reason to use Microsoft products.

I agree with your Microsoft boycott, but you must hit them where it hurts, and Bing is nothing but an also-ran.

Honestly, I don’t get it Nick. Surely the big infraction is censoring what 1 billion Chinese people can learn about their own country, by censoring searches within China, not censoring what a few million people outside China who only know how to search with those simplified characters can learn. So aren’t Google and Microsoft just about equally bad/good? Your distinction seems overblown.

… “Microsoft and its new browser, Bing.” ???? Bing is not their new browser. It’s their new search engine. They are two completely separate things.

It has been over 20 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Both China and US have undergone huge changes.
China has become a richer and stronger country. The US, unfortunately, is the total opposite.

It is time to rethink our thinking about what is right and what is wrong.
I don’t know the answer. But what i know is: US has wasted far more energy/resource on political fight between the democrats and republicans and the unnecessary war in Iraq while China is focusing on its economy.

I don’t think we have the moral supremacy to dictate other country, especially China. There is a poll recently that significantly more Chinese is happy with their government than American with their own.

It seems to me the Chinese deserve the communist government, for better or worse, it is their choice.

Bing isn’t a browser, it’s a search engine.

Just fyi, Bing is a search engine, not a browser as mentioned in the second paragraph.

Bing is a search engine, not a browser.

Thanks for the insight. I will personnaly and advocate the boycott of Bing until Microsoft fixes its abhorrent behavior.

Hmmm. As much as I dislike Microsoft, I would have to say the Microsoft explanation makes sense. I don’t think this problem is intentional or easily avoided. Remember that Bing really isn’t as good as Google, so you can’t expect it to replicate their results.

I agree with commenter #5. The distinction between Microsoft and Google is smaller than would warrant a boycott of Bing and not of Google. I fear that the distinction is more about it being harder to boycott Google with its dominance than to avoid Bing, the challenger. I, for one, would have a hard time giving up Google, even though I think it is wrong for both companies to comply with the autocratic censorship of the Chinese government.

I am so excited to read an anti-microsoft article. I agree with Dan B.

China has been a Linux stronghold for many years and microsoft is always looking for a way in.

As a teacher who has used Linux and Open Source Software in the classroom for over 11 years, I am grieved to see the millions of dollars schools waste on microsoft products each year.

Re David Roodman’s comment, it’s a point well taken, but Google’s approach may be better for those inside China, as there may be sneaky ways to gain access to google.com, e.g. with proxies. Whereas with Bing, all pinyin users get censored information. And by the way, it’s been a while, was a pleasant surprise to see the photo of you in the Times.

All that Microsoft and Goodle did, in relation to their bowing to censorship, is to confirm what Karl Marx once said: “a capitalsit will sell you even the rope with which to hang them.”

So what else is new?

Corporations are not democracies; they are like China. Those at the top are typically chosen from a privileged few. Public criticism by its members is not allowed and is punished. Press releases are always positive and guilt is never admitted.

Many years ago, I worked on the editorial side of Microsoft’s Encarta World Atlas software. The policy back then was never to refer to “Taiwan.” We were always to use “Republic of China,” because that was the PRC’s preferred name for the island nation and Microsoft didn’t want to jeopardize the huge potential market on the mainland.

The premise of your column is American ethical and moral superiority , which should extend to American corporations. I am always amused by this worldview.

Nick, this doesn’t surprise me, but it does anger me. Censorship should go against Microsoft’s grain, but they’ve been deceptive wimps from the start. Here, they’ve caved in advance, in an effort to strengthen their market share in the face of competition from the number 2 and 3 technology companies in the world, Apple and Google. Microsoft has always been opportunistic before ethical. Witness the most horrendous operating system release in history — Windows 95, which was indefensibly unready for prime time — and the way the GUI interface was shamelessly swiped from Apple.

Your recap of Microsoft’s answer to your queries clearly shows they’re lying. Thanks for exposing them.

I’m not clear from this article that the Bing search results are morally any worse than Google. Do Chinese citizens have the ability to make use of Google.com or are they restricted to Google.cn? Does the government censor the non-simplified character searches as well on its Google.cn search engine? If Google.com is being blocked, then that seems to me to make Google even more complicit than Bing. From what you describe, there may be more chances for non-censored information to get through to Chinese citizens on the mainland via Bing than Google.

Also, I’m not clear from your article if Chinese citizens can even get Wikipedia via Google.cn. From your description, its often low on the list via Bing, but at least it is accessible.

As far as how high something appears on a search, that is something that appears can be manipulated to some extent, and is done so here mostly on a commercial basis (I assume). Once an algorithm for a search engine is known, one can do many things in order to climb the rankings. There are businesses that advise on this issue, so it’s no wonder an entity as large as the Chinese gov. would be able to set up enough sites and links to skew search results. Not sure how Bing or anyone is supposed to deal with that. Would be happy to hear suggestions.

Google has a dangerously large market share. With so much power, the threat of its potential for abuse or of fallout from a mistaken policy or an accident is very real. Having more competition, even from the likes of Microsoft, is a plus in my opinion.

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing…

Thank you for illuminating Microsoft’s Bing practices for a wider audience. Their behaviour is completely at odds with the values Microsoft claims to promote — increased personal freedom and empowerment through use of their technology..
And it’s worse than censorship: it is subsversive manipulation of the truth, whether achieved algorithmically or by any other means. Getting two opposite renditions of historical fact; one true, the other propaganda, depending the lanuguage in which one searches hides the deception.

Microsoft isn’t just accomodationing China’s state sensibilities, it is voluntarily serving as an accomplice in state-sponsored suppression of the truth.

Total agree with #7. Actually, China has much more newspapers and info channels to know outside in different versions.If you ask Chinese Americans( they are US citizenship) in downtown east Manhattan, San Francisco and San Gabriel Valley, most of them will tell you they don’t believe Falun Gong, they don’t trust Dalai Lama even they don’t support censorship.

What better software company to dominate the US technology industry that Microsoft? Fits right in with factory farms, private health-removal corporations, robber-baron banks, clueless unresponsive auto corporations, Walmart, monopolistic energy-addiction cartels and the worm-eaten politicians that carry their Perrier.

Wish I was typing this on my 9-year old Apple Mac at home, but I’m on a PC at work. Oh, well…