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Microsoft was investigating a disruption of its Bing search engine in China on Thursday, as social network users feared it would be the last foreign website blocked by censorship.
Attempts to open cn.bing.com have generated an error message for users since Wednesday.
Photo: Screenshot.
"We are aware of reports that Bing may be inaccessible to some customers in China and that an investigation is under way," a spokesman for Microsoft said in a statement.
Chinese communist authorities are exploiting an online censorship device called "Great Firewall", which blocks a large number of websites, including Facebook, Twitter and several foreign media outlets.
But it was not clear whether Bing had joined the long list of banned websites or whether his service in China was experiencing technical difficulties.
China's administration of cyberspace could not be contacted immediately for comment.
Microsoft Bing Maps Data Center. Photo: Robert Scoble / Flickr.
The large Chinese firewall can be bypbaded by using a virtual private network (VPN), which can hide a user's IP address.
While rival Google closed its search engine in China in 2010 after arguments over censorship and hacking, Bing continued to operate in the country with Skype, a company owned by Microsoft.
On Weibo, the Chinese-based social networking site, people complained about lack of access, with some speculating that Bing had also been "partitioned."
Others expressed dissatisfaction with the use of Baidu, China's largest domestic research service.
"I can not open Bing, but I do not want to use Baidu – what to do?", Wrote a user.
Microsoft Building 92 in the United States. Photo: Wikicommons.
"Bing is actually dead – does that force me to use Baidu?" Says another, swearing.
China has stepped up Internet surveillance in recent years, closing 26,000 "illegal" websites in 2018 and removing six million online messages containing vulgar content, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. Beginning of the month.
The Bing disturbance comes as the United States and China grapple with a deadly trade war. The United States accuses the United States of stealing technological know-how at the center of fundamental disagreements.
Both parties are scheduled for new trade negotiations next week.
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