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Bing disables “trending” feature after wildly inappropriate results:
Microsoft has shut down a feature in its Bing search engine that shows popular articles from major websites after Ars Technica reported that the feature was showing wildly inappropriate results from the stock photo site Shutterstock. How inappropriate? Well, here are a couple of screenshots I took on Wednesday morning after a reader tipped me off to the problem:
[screenshots presenting Bing's Trending carousel]
This is what I saw after searching Bing for "Shutterstock." These weren't the very top results—I scrolled down a bit before taking these screenshots—but this "trending articles" carousel appeared on the first page.
I wasn't about to click on a link to "boys erection" without talking to a lawyer first. So my editor advised our tipster to notify the FBI, while I emailed Microsoft and Shutterstock to see if they could explain what was going on.
Happily, Microsoft and Shutterstock confirmed that there was no child porn here. The "boys erection" video is an entirely wholesome video of a boy "erecting" a tent. The "big tits stock video" link went to a video of a bird called a tit. There's nothing pornographic about the "mature mom and young son" video—though it was easy to assume otherwise given the titles of the other links.
[...] As the name suggests, this "trending articles" carousel is supposed to highlight articles on a website (Shutterstock in this case) that are most popular at the moment. Microsoft didn't just shut it down for Shutterstock. It has disabled the feature for all websites.
[...] While Microsoft says it takes full responsibility for not filtering out these results, the company says that all the data—including phrases like "boys erection" and "big tits"—came from Shutterstock's website. The titles shown in these results are not the titles shown on the corresponding video pages. The tent video, for example, is labeled "caucasian dad and son assembling tent on holiday outdoors," not "boys erection."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday April 26 2020, @03:11PM (4 children)
People know the internet is under surveillance. They refrain from clicking on things for fear of getting into trouble. Self-censorship is really sad.
If that sentence doesn't convince you the free (not as in beer) internet is dead, nothing will.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday April 26 2020, @09:42PM (3 children)
no, they know their work internet (and email and, in some companies, phone texting) is monitored.
This is not about "the internet", this is "computer use at work".
Companies have and will fire people for "inappropriate behaviour", including watching porn (in private, with no one else around), just because someone in the IT department 'found' it and told management (yay, IT department is useful and necessary!)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 26 2020, @11:38PM (2 children)
Work internet is the most likely to get someone into real trouble, but you're a fool if you don't think your personal internet connection is being monitored. It is simply that the government won't do anything with it unless you're doing some really bad shit. Your ISP is most likely selling some of your browsing history.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday April 27 2020, @01:50AM (1 child)
but that isn't why TFA author was concerned.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 27 2020, @11:32AM
Actually, I think that IS why the author was concerned. We've almost certainly all seen police videos of CP busts. I remember one in particular, of police rolling into a wealthier subdivision in Texas - somewhere near Dallas I think it was - and busting the owner. They didn't go to his workplace, they went to his home. According to the video, he was some kind of mastermind in a vast child porn ring, but they would say the same if all they found were a half dozen pics of babies or little children being bathed. Once the bust is made, you're a "high stakes playa".
Then, there are the stories of boyfriend/girlfriend sharing some nude photos via their cellphones. Again, they are charged with ridiculous offenses, that just keep piling up.
I suspect that if the cops are interested in you for other reasons, they probably start watching for any indication of CP imagery, and they'll use the most innocent of images to "justify" kicking your door down.
And, remember, THERE IS NO DEFENSE with regards to the court of public opinion. Once the charge is laid against you, you're a child molesting pervert for the rest of your life. You might as well suck Sam Colt and swallow that .45 cal lead vitamin.