Blaming human error, Microsoft has restored previously blocked images of the famous defiance by an unknown man who challenged Chinese tanks during the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.
Users who tried to find the picture on Friday were advised there were no results available for searches on “Tank Man. US, Germany Singapore, France and Switzerland users were affected. The images have since been restored.
The action came on the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which saw students and pro-democracy protesters arrested and gunned down.
“This is due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this,” Microsoft said in a statement on Friday.
Bing is the second-largest search engine, but garners only 2 percent of the worldwide market, according to Statcounter. Google has 92 percent of the market.
Tianamen Square images and references are routinely censored on Chinese media. Bing and other companies permit censored versions of their products within China.
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