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Microsoft's Bing Refuses Search Term "Sex" In India
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently Microsoft is censoring search results for Bing in India and other countries. If you try to search for the term 'sex,' along with lots of variations, from India using Microsoft's new search engine, an error message is returned that says, 'the search sex may return sexually explicit content. To get results, change your search terms.' There's no preference setting or toggle-on-or-off choice; you simply cannot search for the term 'sex' in India if you are using Bing. While a user still can change their country and try the non-Indian version of Bing, this seems like an unnecessary step and unnecessary censorship on the part of Microsoft. Apparently Google has no problem with Indians searching for the term 'sex.'"
Big Brother knows what's best for us. Now, sit down, shut up, and consume consume consume, work work work, buy buy buy.
If their population, and the Kama Sutra, are any indication, the cat is definitely out of the bag! Why Microsoft would choose to limit this information is beyond me...
It does stop you form searching for sex. Guess what, goatse gives the same result too! However you can search for:
allah is gay
gay
nigger
make bombs
bombing building
bme pain olympics
2 girls 1 cup
Sure, it's impossible that someone might be trying to read laws about sex discrimination or how to determine the sex of a snake or something.
Congratulations, Microsoft. You have just blocked one of the most popular topics on the internet, forcing people to use an other search engine. Google will love this decision ;-)
C - the footgun of programming languages
The Indian government might have demanded it.. stranger things have happened.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Did the Indian gov't ask Microsoft to block "sex"?
$ make available
I am from India. It is such a ridiculous statement that no one is gay in India. (I am going ignore his implication that being gay is a "problem")
Just curious, why is it so bad in the US for two men to hold hands in public ?
Your argument kinda melted down into vitriol a little at the end there. Easily done when the topic is MS I know!
However, fair points. Corporations care nothing for "good" or "right" - nor do they specifically go out of the way to be "evil". Corporate decision making is based primarily on the profit motive - other considerations are secondary. The decisions that result are ultimately amoral, not necessarily immoral.
Truth is something that a corporation will employ in its statements and publications only so long as there is an estimable return in doing so.
Where we can get away with saying, "Our product is definitely better than all our competitors' products" and the estimable cost of fines, consumer backlash or other bureaucratic costs that might result from blazon lying are significantly less than the estimable profit from gullible rubes buying our product because they thought we must be telling the truth... then we make that statement.
It's not that we the corporation specifically /intend/ harm to consumers. It's simply that we don't ultimately care one way or the other so long as the profit trend from consumer spending on our products is upwards.
It's not "bad" per se, it's just a cultural taboo as in the US such behavior implies homosexuality, which still carries a serious stigma.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Well, some people don't, some people search for a general term. For example I knew someone who was searching for Dick's Sporting Goods which is a major sporting goods retailer... He made the mistake of just typing in "Dicks" in Google. There are a few less obvious ones, "coke" can refer to both a drug (cocaine) or a beverage (coca-cola) and so even typing in "how to make coke" might contain information on refining the coca leaf or how to emulate the flavor of coca-cola. Sure, when you type in "sex" you are practically begging for porn, but similarly if you search for "pots" (most search engines ignore plurals so it comes out as just "pot") how do you know what they are searching for? Either cookware or drugs. If they tried to remove all references to drugs too they would run into problems like that. While "sex" is rather obvious, others are not.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
It is done in India and it has no gay connotations whatsoever. In fact I think you'd offend and confuse anyone by suggesting it is related to homosexuality. Walking down the street holding hands with your male relative or friend is just done, the same way shaking hands (for instance) isn't gay here.
its not like its a highly overpopulated, poor country, right?
better to keep indians ignorant of sex, in case they were to learn it might not be a good idea to bring yet another mouth to feed into the world
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If they don't like explicit content, then should filter the content, not the searches. I think it is possible to return informative web pages about sex.
When in certain countries, you can't turn off the SS feature.
Only when you are extinct, and every human is an Indian, will you know what the point of their reproduction is... Oh, wait...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I found it very healthy, to re-check all your most basic assumptions at most every 10 years. You will be surprised which one have absolutely no scientific base, but were very very deeply connected to every thought of yours.
Absolutely. Don't assume that a hot stove will burn you - you should go right ahead and stick your hand on there every ten years or so, just in case.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Yep, and FedEx should be held responsible for delivery of Anthrax ridden packages.
Yea, especially if you haven't been paying attention to stove technology... In ten years, stoves may be able to return to room temperature in an instant when exposed to living tissue. I'd hate to miss out on cool tech like that just because of assumptions based on old info.
Hmmmm.... Jingles 121st.
Doesn't really have a good ring to it.
Are you sure about that?
In ten years, stoves may be able to return to room temperature in an instant when exposed to living tissue.
I remember, years ago, when I had a cheap watch from Tijuana that claimed to be "water proof". I was about to wear it into the ocean when my cousin asked me "Are you sure it is water proof? What do you gain by testing it when you don't have to?"... In a similar vein, I don't think anyone will go wrong in assuming an operating stove is hot.
Also along those lines, I saw a thing on a some cable channel show, where a saw blade would instantly stop when you put your finger into it. Again, I ask, why would you test that?
I have air bags in my car, I hope not to test them. I am not missing out on the technology of air bags, nor am I sticking my fingers into a "safe" saw blade.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Y'ever beat the shit out of your mom with that cane? 'Cause you probably should.
I saw a thing on a some cable channel show, where a saw blade would instantly stop [sawstop.com] when you put your finger into it.
I would very much want to know, and I would test it -- not with a human finger, but with something I wouldn't mind seeing chopped in half. If it fails the test, it goes back to the store. If it's a scam, they get what they deserve -- if it's merely defective, I get one that actually works.
If this is the one they showed on Time Warp then triggering the automatic stop also breaks the machine (all that energy has to go /somewhere/) so it will be going back to the store whether it works or not.
The one you get back will either be a different one or a repaired one, and you would of course have to test to see if the automatic stop still works . . .
sigs are hazardous to your health