Microsoft's Bing Search Engine Goes Offline In China

An anonymous reader quotes a report from France 24: The Microsoft-run search engine Bing was unavailable in mainland China late Wednesday, raising concerns among some social media users that it could be the latest foreign website to be blocked by censors. Attempting to open cn.bing.com results in an error message, though users can still access Bing's international site using a virtual private network (VPN), which allows people to circumvent China's 'Great Firewall' of censorship. It is not clear whether or not Bing has joined China's long list of prohibited websites or if its China service is experiencing technical difficulties.

On Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media site, people complained about the lack of access, with some speculating that Bing too had been 'walled off.' Others aired their dissatisfaction about having to use Baidu, China's largest domestic search service. 'I can't open Bing, but I don't want to use Baidu -- what to do?' wrote one user. 'Bing is actually dead -- is this to force me to use Baidu??' said another, cursing. Update January 24, 00:10 GMT: Microsoft says it is aware that some users are unable to access Bing in China and says it is investigating the matter.

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