The latest Notepad++ release has removed support for Bing search from the app after the "tank man" fiasco Microsoft had to deal with on Friday afternoon.
"Microsoft Bing is removed from Notepad++ settings for Search on Internet command, due to its poor reliability," the Notepad++ v8 announcement reads.
Don Ho, the creator of Notepad++, one of the most popular open-source Notepad replacements, revealed on GitHub that the motivation behind this decision is Bing censoring results instead of doing "its job."
"When a search engine does the censorship instead of its job, the search result loses its quality and it's not reliable anymore," Don Ho said in the GitHub commit removing Bing support.
"Hence, Microsoft Bing is removed from Notepad++ for "Search on Internet" command."
Bing censorship tagged as accidental human error
As first noticed by Shane Huntley, Director of Software Engineering at Google's Threat Analysis Group, Bing would not return any image or video results when searching for "tank man" in the US, UK, France, and other countries worldwide.
When searching for the phrase, users would only get "There are no results for tank man. Check your spelling or try different keywords." error messages.
While there was no immediate explanation to the problem, it is a widely known fact that China forces companies with businesses within its borders to abide by its censorship rules requiring to block references to China's 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests.
"This is due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this," a Microsoft spokesperson told BleepingComputer later on Friday.
China banned the popular Notepad++ text editor in August 2020 after Don Ho protested against China's human rights violations of the Uyghur people and the Hong Kong political unrest by releasing two versions dubbed 'Stand with Hong Kong' and 'Free Uyghur.'
"I am not surprised about their reaction. But since the free speech is basic right of everyone, I won't keep silent," Don Ho told BleepingComputer at the time.
Comments
GT500 - 2 years ago
When are people going to make a big deal about the fact that Google censors search results, or to put it in Google terms "tailors" search results? Such things are not new, and certainly not exclusive to Microsoft.
Obviously censorship of search results is not good, but neither is setting policy based on the latest "outrage" on social media.
TsVk! - 2 years ago
Google isn't pandering to PRC government demands though. They do not try and hide atrocities.
GT500 - 2 years ago
You mean they haven't been caught trying to hide atrocities.
Penismightier - 2 years ago
Why in the world would a text editor need to search the internet to begin with?
GT500 - 2 years ago
If I remember right it allows you to highlight text and open a search for it in your web browser using the search engine of your choice. Now Bing is no longer one of those choices.
Did anyone choose it to begin with? I have no idea. This is Bing we're talking about, after all.
Citadel - 2 years ago
It's all gotten too political. That is to say that geo-political realities are influencing the long game for search results and companies just see dollars and market share. Now if you could monetize search results in such a way as to adhere to ideal principles of transparency, truth, etc., then you would have companies like Microsoft and countries like China saying they want to play too. It is simplistic to think it would happen overnight but I think as time would have it both nations and companies could find themselves considering whether they want to be left behind or not.
Tarun - 2 years ago
I dropped Notepad++ years ago because of all this political bullshit. They've done this too many times in the past. It's a notepad program, the developer needs to understand his personal political opinions have no place in his software.
I replaced it with Visual Studio Code, haven't looked back.
xrobwx71 - 2 years ago
"I dropped Notepad++ years ago because of all this political bullshit. They've done this too many times in the past. It's a notepad program, the developer needs to understand his personal political opinions have no place in his software.
I replaced it with Visual Studio Code, haven't looked back."
Thanks for the tip.
GT500 - 2 years ago
Interesting. I'll try it out, and see if I like it. Was actually already using a Visual Studio dark theme for Notepad++, so the visual style fits my preference at least.