UPDATE 1/24: China's blocking of the Bing search engine appears to have only lasted about a day. On Thursday, access to the site returned.
"We can confirm that Bing was inaccessible in China, but service is now restored," a Microsoft spokesperson told PCMag. Users in the country have reported the same on local social media.
It remains unclear why the blocking occured in the first place. "There are times when there are disagreements, there are times when there are difficult negotiations with the Chinese government, and we're still waiting to find out what this situation is about," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
Original story 1/23:
For years, Microsoft's Bing search engine has been available in China, despite the country's strict online censorship. But those days may now be over.
On Wednesday, China began blocking the Bing search engine, making it the latest foreign website to be blocked by the Great Firewall.
Users in China began noticing Bing was no longer accessible on Wednesday, which prompted Microsoft to investigate. "We've confirmed that Bing is currently inaccessible in China and are engaged to determine next steps," a Microsoft spokesperson later told PCMag without elaborating.
What triggered China to block the search engine isn't clear. But it occurred on a government order, according to The Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources. Users who attempt to visit the site will now encounter a connection error.
Many other foreign websites including Google, Facebook, and Twitter have long been blocked in the country for offering unfiltered content, including information critical of the Chinese government. But the blocking of Bing is notable because the website actually followed the country's strict rules on censoring search results. This allowed Bing to operate in the country when other foreign internet services and apps continue to be inaccessible. (To visit censored websites, users in China have to rely on VPN services, which can bypass the blocking, but the government has been trying to crack down on their use.)
Despite Bing's presence in China, the search engine wasn't very popular among local users. It had only a 2 percent share of the country's search market, according to StatCounter. In contrast, the Chinese search engine Baidu has 70 percent.
Time will tell if the blocking proves to be permanent. But the incident is still bad news for any US internet company thinking of expanding into China and playing by the country's rules, like Google. Not helping the matter is the Trump administration's trade war against China.
Greatfire.org, a group that monitors China's online censorship, told PCMag: "It is unlikely that Microsoft stepped up to the plate and lifted censorship restrictions. This is just the Chinese authorities being the Chinese authorities."
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from Greatfire.org.