Microsoft’s Bing, the only major foreign search engine available in China, has demanded that the “concerned government agency” suspend its auto-referral operation in China for seven days.
This is the second time the suspension has been in place for Pink since December, and has come amid continuing repression of technology sites and algorithms from Beijing.
Chinese Internet users first saw the suspension on Saturday.
“Bing is a global search engine and is committed to upholding the rule of law and the right of users to access information,” Bing said on its Chinese search site.
Bing did not specify the reason for the suspension. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Internet companies in China have been hit hard last year by regulatory repression that has imposed new restrictions on areas ranging from content to customer privacy.
In August, Beijing’s top cyber regulator released draft rules on how websites can and should not use algorithms.
The final form of the rules went into effect this month.
© Thomson Reuters 2022