Bing has hit the news lately for its censorship of Chinese searches, censorship that goes on even outside China. But Bing’s censorship in Thailand is just as bad and, to a point now where using Bing as a search engine for me is completely pointless. Not if I want decent search results in just a few seconds.
Case in point, my search on Bing yesterday from my apartment in Bangkok. A Bing search that was completely censored and produced no search results whatsoever. On Google, however, the search came through in two seconds flat and I happily moved onto the website I was looking for.
So, what was the search term I used on Bing that Bing seemed to think needed to be censored in Thailand?
‘Strippin YouTube’.
Now, before you start saying “Well….if you’re looking for videos on stripping, what do you expect?”, let me explain.
Strippin is a YouTube gamer who records videos of himself playing Minecraft and other games. He’s a member of the famous Yogscast group, and one of the most successful gamers on YouTube.
Yet, if you search for ‘Strippin YouTube’ on Bing, any of his videos or links to the Strippin YouTube channel are censored in Thailand as Bing, in their idiocy, seems to think Thai authorities want them to block it.
Of course, it’s not just an innocuous search for a Strippin video I can’t get from Bing search in Thailand. Last week, it was any information on ‘rabbits’ as, according to Bing, the Thai authorities think rabbits are so objectionable they refuse to let internet users in Thailand search for any information on these cute little animals.
(I’m guessing it’s something to do with the rabbit sex aid, that has had Bing censor anything about rabbits in Thailand!).
Needless to say, as much as I despise Google and think this monopoly should be monitored closely, at least with Google in Thailand I get the search results I need.
With Bing? All I get is a blank white screen saying,
“Your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult contain”
All I can say to that is “Bye bye, Bing and Hello Google”.
