DuckDuckGo has denied blocking access to piracy sites after users reported that the browser had no results for such searches.
Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of privacy-centric browser DuckDuckGo, has rejected praises that his system is blocking piracy sites. In a Tweet, he said:
“We are not “purging” any media outlets from results. Anyone can verify this by searching for an outlet and see it come up in results.”
He explained that it was an issue with the company’s operator. Here is his statement in full.
Hoping to clear up some misconceptions about our private search engine.
First, there is a completely made up headline going around this weekend. We are not “purging” any media outlets from results. Anyone can verify this by searching for an outlet and see it come up in results.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) April 17, 2022
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At first glance, it had appeared like the browser was stamping out bootleg online destinations. However, what was happening was that the people who first spread the news were using site operators or query operators to look for the concerned sites, which is unusual for DuckDuckGo users.
According to Allison Goodman, the company’s senior communications manager, users traditionally use site URLs instead. And the issue was not limited to piracy sites, as some other ‘clean’ sites were having the same issues.
“…The Pirate Bay were never removed from our search results when you searched for them directly by name or URL, which the vast majority of people do (it’s rare for people to use site operators or query operators in general).” Goodman told The Verge.
It appears that the problem is being fixed as users report that some of the searches are now turning up results, unlike over the weekend.
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