R&I NV — Government and corporate purges of COVID-19 “misinformation” are looking more like a beta test to control the whole range of allowed debate in every society, regardless of how democratic it appears to be.
The next target is purported Russian propaganda related to its invasion of Ukraine, and even a tech platform that has long advertised itself as a less domineering version of Google is joining the bandwagon.
Privacy-friendly search engine DuckDuckGo shocked its user base Wednesday when founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg disclosed it had started to “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation” in addition to highlighting “quality information for rapidly unfolding topics” at the top of search results.
Weinberg briefly responded to critical Twitter users, arguing that “search ranking relevancy” is not censorship and that DuckDuckGo’s core feature is privacy. He got backing from elite media, including Washington Post tech writer Will Oremus, who nonetheless said DuckDuckGo invited scrutiny by “trying to capitalize on the right’s anger with Google search ‘bias.'”
The change could plausibly affect search results for news sources, pundits and influencers that don’t reflexively dismiss all claims coming from Russian officials or sympathizers, given DuckDuckGo’s failure to define “associated.”
The hashtag #DuckDuckGone has been trending as users publicly pledged to quit the search engine, which has run billboards in markets, including Washington, D.C., where it seeks to capitalize on legislative and regulatory scrutiny of Google.
Many users are professing a switch to the browser and search engine Brave, including Chris Pavlovski, CEO of the YouTube alternative Rumble.
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Article URL : https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/boon-big-tech-alternatives-google-challenger-duckduckgo