Bing Search Engine | There is no famous photo of a protester standing in front of Tiananmen tanks

France Media Agency

“This is due to human error and we are actively working to resolve it,” said a spokesman for Microsoft, the computer giant that manages Bing, hours after reports in the American press.

The search for “Tank Man” on Google Images, the most dominant competitor service on the Internet, brought hundreds of events of the image of American photographer Charlie Cole.

We saw an unknown protester in a white shirt trying to block the progress of a column of at least 17 tanks on June 5, 1989 in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The pro-democracy protests have been going on for seven weeks. Their oppression left hundreds, if not more than a thousand, dead.

Clichy, who won the World Press Photo of the Year award in 1990, is largely unknown in China due to censorship.

The country has an extensive Internet surveillance system that allows it to retrieve any content it deems sensitive, such as political criticism or pornography. And in the name of stability, the country needs digital giants to have their own sensors to handle this work upstream.

Failure to comply with these regulations will result in a large percentage of foreign search engines and social networks (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) being blocked in China and Internet users will only be able to access them with bypass software (VPN).

But the disappearance of the photo in Bing‌ outside China was not understood.

Any commemoration of the Tiananmen oppression was forbidden in China, and only the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong could tolerate it.

As Beijing turns against all forms of opposition in the former British colony, the candlelight vigil was banned this year. The park is vacant for the first time in 32 years.