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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:34AM (1 child)
Other people have already pointed out your factual error regarding the US definition, so I'll just focus on your non-argument as to why the law, whatever it says, is justified.
Let me start by presenting an analogous argument:
Ban orange juice now!
You've pointed out (or at least implied*) that this person caused actual harm to an actual victim (you). They should be arrested -- for that actual crime. But you've neglected to demonstrate any way in which collecting child porn hurts actual people, or any justification for the apparent implication that anyone possessing child porn will necessary go on to abuse 12-year-olds, so your vignette The Screaming Twelve-year-old isn't the argument you seem to think it is.
So try again. Bonus points if you manage not to imply that everyone possessing adult porn is bound to rape an adult at some point.
*Some 12-year-olds scream bloody murder when their parents demand they eat nutritious food before dessert, and can be heard quite a long ways, and yet no one comes to their aid or calls the police. Of course, I assume you're talking about (or rather talking around) some genuine abuse, rather than CP-fueled vegetable enforcement, but it's only fair to note the distinction.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 17 2018, @06:01AM
The weariness comes and goes. When it comes I'm totally useless. Likely I'll go nap for a little while.
But I do want to explain that I had what at the time a good reason not to report my abuser. I feel now that was a very good reason.
The man is dead now, but I still won't post his name in public.
Most of the headshrinking I've experienced since twelve years of age was the result of being molested, however I avoided giving any of my shrinks his name until long after the statute of limitations expired.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]