Microsoft’s new search engine Bing.com is censoring searches in India (and apparently several other countries). Setting one’s country option to India and searching for the term sex, porn or even Kama Sutra is censored with a cryptic “THE SEARCH MAY RETURN SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT. To get results, change your search terms.”  No option for a “safe search” or a grown-up uncensored option like Google has for its image search.  This censoring has been pointed out on a few other blogs and news sites, but no word if this is Microsoft’s doing or a government mandate.

My guess is that some Microsoft head-honcho in India took it upon themselves to be the moral police for these countries based on some poorly conceived laws in these countries.  India, by the way, makes it illegal to transmit sexual content of any kind. I can’t find the actual law that states this, but I will update when I can.