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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 16 2018, @01:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the NSFW-NSFW-NSFW-NSFW-NSFW-NSFW dept.

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Bing Is Suggesting the Worst Things You Can Imagine

If you use Bing’s image search, you’re going to see the worst filth you can imagine.  Bing suggests racist terms and shows horrifying images. Bing will even suggest you search for exploited children if you have SafeSearch disabled.

We contacted Microsoft for comment, and Jeff Jones, Senior Director at Microsoft, gave us the following statement:

“We take matters of offensive content very seriously and continue to enhance our systems to identify and prevent such content from appearing as a suggested search. As soon as we become aware of an issue, we take action to address it.”

Update: Since publication, Microsoft has been working on cleaning up the offensive Bing suggestions that we mentioned. Based on our research, there are still many other offensive suggestions that have not yet been fixed, including a few that we’ve mentioned below. We are unsure if they are simply fixing the offensive items we pointed out, or if they are improving the algorithm.

Note: The screenshots here show what we saw when we wrote this piece testing the US version of Bing Image search in an Incognito private browsing session, but Bing’s results shift over time. Google didn’t have any of these problems, according to our tests. This is a Bing problem, not just a search engine problem. The same problem affects Bing’s video search.

[...] Microsoft needs to moderate Bing better. Microsoft has previously created platforms, unleashed them on the world, and ignored them while they turned bad

We’ve seen this happen over and over. Microsoft once unleashed a chatbot named Tay on Twitter. This chatbot quickly turned into a Nazi and declared “Hitler was right I hate the jews” after it learned from other social media users. Microsoft had to pull it offline.

[...] Microsoft can’t just turn a platform loose on the world and ignore it. Companies like Microsoft and Google have a responsibility to moderate their platforms and keep the horror at bay.

Suggestions Have a History of Serious Problems

Of course, there’s no team of people at Microsoft choosing these suggestions. Bing automatically suggests searches based on other people’s searches. That means many Bing Images users are searching for antisemitism, racism, child pornography, and bestiality.

Please refer to TFA for actual search terms, suggested items, and images found.

Also at The Verge, BBC News


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @02:36PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @02:36PM (#749542)

    But who populated the vile search terms?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @04:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @04:01PM (#749568)

    Chan trolls, most likely.

  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 16 2018, @04:58PM (4 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 16 2018, @04:58PM (#749598) Homepage Journal

    Here's how it works. Search for "Hilary Clinton", it suggests

    - Hilary Clinton Nude Internet Crime Complaint Center.

    While google really _does_ remove CP from its cache, Bing does not. This is evidenced by Bing Image Search caching CP for _years_ after the original server dropped dead.

    For quite a while I was studying how to refactor source code in such a way as to save energy. Want to know why I gave it up?

    I eventually concluded that 99% of the energy used to operate web servers goes to operate KiddiePr0n servers. I Am Absolutely Serious.

    Google doesn't suggest pr0n queries at all. Bing is completely shameless about doing so.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday October 16 2018, @05:25PM (3 children)

      by NewNic (6420) on Tuesday October 16 2018, @05:25PM (#749606) Journal

      Here's how it works. Search for "Hilary Clinton", it suggests

      - Hilary Clinton Nude Internet Crime Complaint Center.

      I just tried it. Bing gave no such suggestion. Perhaps it reflects your search history in its suggestions?

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 16 2018, @05:35PM (2 children)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 16 2018, @05:35PM (#749607) Homepage Journal

        ... so as to avoid supplying you with actual CP search terms.

        About half my post got munched. What I was trying to say about the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center is that I reported two CP sites that were being served by cloudflare. I have since found others.

        Quite a long time ago the Feds made a big show of seizing a couple dot-com CP domains, but then they stopped doing that. I'd say 3/4th of all CP sites have domains that are under US control, yet the Feds don't seize them anymore.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @12:08AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @12:08AM (#749712)

          Probably the Feds have seized the actual site, and are now running it themselves as a honey pot. How else can they make it so easy to round up some pedos whenever they need some good coverage in the press?

          • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @05:56AM

            by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 17 2018, @05:56AM (#749838) Homepage Journal

            I read it on the Internet so it must be true.

            The folks who hang out on The Dark Net warn the newbies that half of all CP sites are operated by the FBI.

            While I can understand why the Feds prioritize hidden services they really could make a bigger difference far quicker if they would take out the clearnet CP sites.

            Why prioritize hidden services?

            That shit is twisted.

            --
            Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]