New Delhi: After several tech giants took action against Russia's war on Ukraine, privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has now announced it will demote Russian propaganda and disinformation in search results. The announcement, made by DuckDuckGo's Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg, the company has "down-ranked" websites in its search results that are "associated with Russian disinformation."
"Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️ At DuckDuckGo, we've been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation," DuckDuckGo Founder and CEO tweeted late on Thursday.
The privacy-focused search engine company will be rolling out updates that will ensure that Russian disinformation sites rank down in its search results. Earlier this month, the company also announced that it would temporarily hold its relationship with Russian-state-owned search engine named Yandex.
However, the company's decision has not gone well with some of its users and they have complained saying that DuckDuckGo's action against the Russian invasion of Ukraine goes against the company's goal of providing unbiased search results. Some users have claimed to have already changed their default search engine preference due to this decision, according to a report published by Mashable.
Several tech giants, including Facebook parent Meta, Google, Apple, Nintendo and Netflix among others have suspended operations in Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, Google Maps and Tripadvisor had blocked the ability to post new reviews to some listings in Russia as well as Ukraine and Belarus.