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Microsoft has been accused of censorship after its search engine Bing was found to filter non-pornographic lesbian and gay searches in Arabic countries.

A recent test carried out by Open Net Initiative (ONI) showed that a Bing version tailored for users in Arab countries filtered English and Arabic queries related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender material, alongside keywords related to sexually explicit content.

Attempts to use filtered keywords prompted a message which said: “Your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult content.”

Filtered Arabic words included “lesbian”, “gay” and “homosexuality”. These words were allowed as English keywords when searching for websites, but banned in image searches.

ONI researchers said: “Microsoft has signalled its willingness to be at the forefront in protecting freedom of expression around the world. It is difficult to reconcile this position with Bing’s current filtering standards.”

Microsoft has not commented on the claims.

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