Microsoft says Bing’s ‘Tank Man’ censorship was a human error


On Microsoft’s search engine Bing, searching for “Tank Man,” the iconic figure from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China, turned up no image results in the United States for part of Friday. Vice was able to produce the same results in the US, and heard from multiple users from other countries who ran into the same issue.

Stranger still, searching “Tank Man” or “Tiananmen Square Tank Man” turned up normal search results in Bing, it’s just images that were mysteriously missing. When The Verge contacted Microsoft for an explanation, it said “This is due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this.”

Search results for “Tank Man” after the accident.

It’s an unfortunately timed accident…

Continue reading…

Read more