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.”
It’s an unfortunately timed accident given that June 4th, 2021 is the 32nd anniversary of the student-led protests in China — an uprising in response to changes in the country that was met with assault rifles, tanks, and a massacre. Microsoft did eventually restore results to the specific search, though it’s still noticeably missing the well-known image. Adding in a mention of “Tiananmen” or “Tiananmen Square” pulls up what you’d expect, however. It’s not clear why Bing would weigh generic images of tanks more heavily than a famous piece of visual history, but we’ve reached out to Microsoft see if that’s normal.
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www.theverge.com
