Microsoft's Bing Search Engine Is Back Online In China After Being Blocked For Two Days

Microsoft's Bing search engine can be accessed by internet users in China again after it was blocked for two days behind the country's so-called Great Firewall.

Credits : www.abc.net.au

The US technology giant confirmed on Friday that access was again possible but did not provide reasons for the disruption or other details.

Comments on social media had accused regulators of choking off access to information. Others complained they were forced to use Chinese search engines they said delivered poor results — often irrelevant or thought to be paid advertising.

"Why can't we choose what we want to use?" a comment signed Aurelito on the Sina Weibo microblog service said.

Bing was the only major foreign search engine accessible from within China, and Microsoft censored search results on sensitive topics, in accordance with government policy.

Google's search platform has been blocked in China since 2010.

The two-day Bing ban was Microsoft's second setback in China since November 2017, when its Skype internet phone call and messaging service was pulled from Apple and Android app stores.

While services were down, a search performed on Bing's China website — cn.bing.com — from within mainland China directed users to a page that said the server could not be reached.

The Financial Times reported China Unicom, a major state-owned telecommunication company, had confirmed the Government order to block the search engine.

Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), a government watchdog, did not respond to questions about Bing's blocked website.

The Communist Party has a long history of exercising its role to educate and control citizens by removing content from the media that it believes might cause "spiritual pollution".

China has by far the biggest population of internet users, with about 800 million people online, according to government data.

The Firewall is a digital border that was built by the Chinese Government to control the internet in the mid-1990s.

In recent years, China has pushed its digital silk road and tech giants such as Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent to the world, while simultaneously tightening internet censorship.

President Xi Jinping has accelerated control of the internet in China since 2016, as the ruling Communist Party seeks to crack down on dissent in the social media landscape.

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has promoted the notion of "internet sovereignty," or the right of Beijing and other governments to dictate what their publics can do and see online.

The Government also has tightened controls on use of virtual private network technology that can evade its filters.

In a statement on Wednesday, CAC said it had deleted more than 7 million pieces of online information and 9,382 mobile apps.

It also criticised technology company Tencent's news app for spreading "vulgar information".

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in December the company has no plans to relaunch a search engine in China, though it is continuing to study the idea amid increased scrutiny of big tech firms.

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Source: www.abc.net.au