Microsoft Bing Ban in China Lifted: Services For Web Search Engine Now Restored

Beijing, Jan 26: After being reportedly blocked by the Chinese government, access to Microsoft's search engine Bing has been restored by the Chinese telecom providers, the media reported. Bing is the only global search platform that is open for use in China. Late on Wednesday, the Microsoft search engine was blocked, reportedly at the behest of the Chinese government for reasons unknown. Microsoft Bing: China Blocks the Only Search Engine in the Country.

According to a report in Financial Times on Wednesday, mainland Chinese users wrote on social media that attempts to access Bing's China site -- cn.bing.com -- failed.

"We can confirm that Bing was inaccessible in China, but service is now restored," said Microsoft in a statement given to theinquirer.net on Friday.

"Two sources familiar with the government order confirmed that Bing had been blocked. One of the sources said that China Unicom, one of China's major state-owned telecom companies, had confirmed the government had ordered a block on Bing," said the report. Microsoft waiting to Find Out Why Bing Went Offline in China.

In a statement given to The New York Times, Microsoft had said: "We've confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in China and are engaged to determine next steps."

The outage led to speculation that China was in the middle of a significant crackdown of potentially dissident sites in a year of significant anniversaries. While neither Microsoft nor Chinese authorities have explained the reason behind the extended outage, GreatFire, a group that tracks what sites are blocked in China, said it is likely not to have been a government dictum after all, the theinquirer.net said.

Bing is one of the few Western search engines available behind the Great Firewall, thanks to an agreement to host its servers in China, and therefore be subject to the government's censorship policies which are designed to keep dissent to a minimum. Facebook Likely Merge WhatsApp, Instagram & Messenger Chats Soon.

Google Search is already inaccessible in China while Facebook-owned WhatsApp was blocked in 2017. Google had earlier launched a search engine in China in 2006 but pulled the plug in 2010, citing Chinese government efforts to limit free speech and block websites. Facebook Integration: WhatsApp’s End-to-End Encryption Might Go For Toss - Report.

Google has also shelved its plan to re-enter China through a censored search application code-named "Project Dragonfly", after massive protests. In 2018, Chinese authorities also launched a renewed attack on VPN providers, whose services can be used to circumvent censored sites and services.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 26, 2019 01:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).