Recently, it came to everybody’s attention that Apple was adding DuckDuckGo, the privacy engine, as a default search option to iOS and their upcoming desktop operating system. But, this isn’t where the big news lies. The news comes from the decision that China make to block DuckDuckGo.
This block has been confirmed by Gabriel Weinberg, the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, and has confirmed the news on Twitter and said that Chinese regulators blocked it “a few weeks back.”
did @DuckDuckGo get blocked in China at some point in last few weeks? i just set as default in iOS8 but it won’t connect. cc: @jasonqng
— Steven Millward (@SirSteven) September 21, 2014
And the reply:
@SirSteven @duckduckgo @jasonqng we did get blocked as far as we know
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) September 21, 2014
According to BlockedInChina.com, it shows that DuckDuckGo has been blocked in every Chinese regions, which includes Beijing, Shenzen, Inner Mongollia, Heilongjiang Province and Yunnan Province.
Although we don’t know the clear reason why China has decided to block the search engine, but it could be that DuckDuckGo hasn’t complied with their filtering regulations. Is Gabriel Weinberg working with the necessary people in China to get this blockage problem rectified? At this point, it’s unclear.
According to Barry Schwartz, Google has been blocked by China a number of times in the past, and this could be an indication that DuckDuckGo could be on it’s way to becoming a powerful search alternative.