DuckDuckGo CEO Announces Google-Style Censorship Scheme of Content Deemed 'Russian Disinformation'

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Mar. 10, 2022

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg on Wednesday announced the rollout of a new Google-style censorship scheme to down-rank websites he says are "associated with Russian disinformation."

"Like so many others I am sickened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️," Weinberg tweeted. "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," he continued.

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.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022

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

Weinberg arrogantly lectured users who voiced opposition to his new censorship scheme.

The whole point of DuckDuckGo is privacy. The whole point of the search engine is to show more relevant content over less relevant content, and that is what we continue to do.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022

Search engines by definition try to put more relevant content higher and less relevant content lower -- that's not censorship, it's search ranking relevancy.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022

What exactly is "as is"? Search results aren't a completely random list of web sites. They are created based on a complex set of algorithms weighing 100s of factors.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) 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:

https://t.co/uuaYKeqrOj
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) 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.

Last year, the popular Twitter account Libs Of TikTok posted emails purportedly from DuckDuckGo said to demonstrate that the company discriminates against white men.

The Gateway Pundit reported that they reached out to DuckDuckGo for comment on the allegations but they did not respond. Libs Of TikTok got suspended from Twitter temporarily just for posting the screenshots.

Weinberg had no issue with going on RT in 2015 to promote his website.

Now that the winds have changed and DuckDuckGo has surged in popularity he has assimilated into the Borg.

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