Microsoft Corp. blamed an "accidental human error" that prevented its Bing search engine from showing image results for the query "tank man" in the U.S. and elsewhere, reports said Saturday.
Users, including in Germany, UK, France, Switzerland and Singapore reported seeing the message "There are no results for tank man" when they searched Bing, The Guardian said.
The phrase relates to the image of a lone protester standing before a column of tanks in China's Tiananmen Square during demonstrations in 1989.
The People's Republic of China has long censored references to the pro-democracy protest movement. The government maintains strict control over the use of the internet in the country.
"Tank Man" became the defining image of the protest crackdown in which hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed, BBC reported.
Competitor Google showed many results for "tank man."
According to David Greene, civil liberties chief at the not-for-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation, content moderation was impossible to do perfectly and "egregious mistakes are made all the time."
But, it could be more sinister, Greene said. "At worst, this was purposeful suppression at the request of a powerful state," Reuters quoted him as saying.
Outrageous: on the anniversary of the murderous Tiananmen Square crackdown, Microsoft's Bing search engine suddenly won't return any images if you search for "tank man," the iconic photo. I just tried. Hard to believe this is an inadvertent error. https://t.co/LMIrpbnUnu pic.twitter.com/cPG3XV3tBI — Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) June 4, 2021
In a tweet, Kenneth Roth, the director of Human Rights Watch, said he found the explanation "hard to believe."
China has recently clamped down on demonstrations and vigils within China and Hong Kong commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests.
Hours after Microsoft acknowledged the glitch, the "tank man" search returned only images of tanks elsewhere in the world.
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