The backlash underscored the difficulties some technology companies face in limiting the spread of Russian propaganda.
Far-right influencers have often encouraged people to use the small privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo instead of Google, saying that the giant search engine censored conservative ideas. The praise for DuckDuckGo turned to outrage this week, though, after the company said Russian disinformation would be minimized on its site. DuckDuckGo’s chief executive, Gabriel Weinberg, tweeted on Thursday that the search engine would rank websites “associated with disinformation” lower in its search results. “Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create,” he wrote. DuckDuckGo has little control over its search results because they are provided by Microsoft’s Bing, which announced that it would follow the European Union ’s order to restrict access to the Russian state news agencies RT and Sputnik.
