DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg announced on Twitter that the search engine will begin purging all independent media outlets from the platform and will replace them with “trusted” mainstream media outlets instead.
Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️ At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.
In addition to down-ranking sites associated with disinformation, we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of DuckDuckGo search results (where they are seen and clicked the most) to highlight quality information for rapidly unfolding topics.
DuckDuckGo’s mission is to make simple privacy protection accessible to all. Privacy is a human right and transcends politics, which is why about 100 million people around the world use DuckDuckGo. (We don’t have an exact count since we don’t track people.)
Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022
At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.
In addition to down-ranking sites associated with disinformation, we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of DuckDuckGo search results (where they are seen and clicked the most) to highlight quality information for rapidly unfolding topics.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022
DuckDuckGo’s mission is to make simple privacy protection accessible to all. Privacy is a human right and transcends politics, which is why about 100 million people around the world use DuckDuckGo. (We don’t have an exact count since we don’t track people.)
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022
Information Liberation reports: Weinberg arrogantly lectured users who voiced opposition to his new censorship scheme.who stood up for their free speech rights:
The whole point of DuckDuckGo is for you to NOT do that
— Jason Hayward (@JasonHayward87) March 10, 2022
So you are censoring your users? DDG now decides what is or isn’t misinformation? This decision should be left to the user
— Aindreas (@andrewwbharvey) March 10, 2022
I get it but I thought the point of DuckDuckGo was to present search results “as is”. Not your role to play thought police.
— Gimli (@GIMLIS0N0FGL0IN) March 10, 2022
The only quality search engine which doesn’t censor content based off political views now is Russia’s Yandex (at least if you’re outside Russia).
Weinberg evidently paused ties with Yandex a week or so ago:
Is DDG finally going to stop using russian Yandex search engine which is yet another government’s propaganda tool?
— 🇺🇦 пан Марк (@mmatviyiv) March 10, 2022
DuckDuckGo’s search results have gone to s**t over the past two years because they mostly just index Bing results (the two companies have a deal together).
Microsoft announced in late February that they’re going to manually demote RT and Sputnik in Bing search results, ban their apps from the Microsoft Store and ban them from advertising on their network.
Whether Weinberg is taking some “principled” stand against “Russian disinfo” or just following Microsoft’s lead because his site is mostly just a Bing scraper is not clear.
Weinberg told the New York Times last month that his company is now operating as a snitch for Bing.
