Security News > 2022 > March > DuckDuckGo down-ranks sites spreading Russian propaganda
The DuckDuckGo web search engine is now demoting websites known to spread Russian propaganda following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the company's founder and CEO, Gabriel Weinberg.
"At DuckDuckGo, we've been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation."
In addition to down-ranking sites associated with disinformation, we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of DuckDuckGo search results to highlight quality information for rapidly unfolding topics.
Katie McInnis, DuckDuckGo's senior public policy manager for the US, also said in a Tuesday House hearing that the company "Paused" the partnership it had with the Yandex search engine in Russian and Turkish markets because of the war in Ukraine.
Weinberg is yet to provide any information on what sites will be automatically down-ranked in search results because they are pushing Russian disinformation.
When asked on Twitter if DuckDuckGo is now censoring search results, Weinberg said that "Search engines by definition try to put more relevant content higher and less relevant content lower - that's not censorship, it's search ranking relevancy."