[governance] New York Time's - Kristof: Boycott Bing

[Yehuda Katz]

NYT's Kristof: Boycott Bing
Todd Bishop on Friday, November 20, 2009

Art.Ref.:
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/11/nyts_kristof_calls_for_bing_boycott.html

Art.Ref.: Link Ref.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/boycott-microsoft-bing/

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New York Time's Kristof: Boycott Bing ...

[UPDATE, 8 p.m.: In a response to Kristof's post Friday evening, Microsoft said
it's "committed to comprehensive results" and made it clear that it believes
any problems are related to its search technology, not a purposeful attempt to
omit controversial content. Microsoft's Adam Sohn cited "some queries that
provide very balanced web results," such as a search in Simplified Chinese for
"June 4th Tiananmen."

"In addition, today’s investigations uncovered the fact that our image search
is not functioning properly for queries entered using Simplified Chinese
characters outside of the PRC. We have identified the bug and are at work on
the fix. We expect to have this done before the Thanksgiving holiday," Sohn
wrote. "Bing’s intent for these types of queries is to provide relevant and
comprehensive results for our customers."

He added, "We appreciate the dialog that Mr. Kristof has kicked off. Community
feedback and input is incredibly important to Bing – it helps us do better
and sometimes alerts us to things we can take immediate action to fix as we
continue to improve."]

Original post below. 
Microsoft's support for Referendum 71 won its Bing search engine a new fan in
David Schmader of the Stranger, but the company's Internet search practices
related to China have now lost Bing a user in Nicholas Kristof -- and the New
York Times columnist is calling on his readers to follow suit with a boycott.

Kristof's objection, outlined in a blog post this afternoon, centers around his
observation that searches conducted using simplified Chinese characters in Bing
return "sanitized pro-Communist results" not just in China but around the
world. He questions Microsoft's claim that the results are determined by search
algorithms, not its corporate policy. Here's an excerpt from his post.

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.) ...

Kristof's Original Post (Full)
See: Art. Link Ref.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/boycott-microsoft-bing/

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