DuckDuckGo censorship

We already have a good option from searx and mojeek also metager is also good now.
What duckduckgo is doing i don’t think it is bad or good because it is not a single country it is most countries even so called Democratic countries they sponsores news organizations to do propaganda and misinformation just to hide there governments mistakes and scams now misinformation become so sophisticated that you can’t know the difference between both so reader have to be more aware… but a search engine can’t do any censorship without proper research it will be biased in anyway so i think searx is a good way as it actually combined lots of index and show results btw brave search is also good they are in beta seems good.

It seems that now they also “censor” independent media, even if they do not fall under what they would call “Russian propaganda”. As if the non-independent media were not also propaganda x)

In this case the “censorship” is applied by downranking.

They have also censored piracy websites, in some cases, they have been completely de-indexed.
They have even removed youtube-dl ! not even Google does this.


DDG has gone too far, It certainly goes on my blacklist and I will spread the word.
Now what? I’m sorry but Mojeek is very bad. Searx is constantly blocked…
I guess Startpage is an alternative, with javascript enabled and some degree of tracking :sleepy:
And, there’s also Monocles search, thoughts?

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thoughts?

At first yt-dl versus youtube-dl seemed like a possibility, but no. They are slightly odd sites with pages all over github, and forwarding…

IDK, but RIAA can be vicious, and DDG could be playing defense, on advice of attorneys…

Irony. DDG has lots of related results: (1) "youtube-dl" "duckduckgo" at DuckDuckGo

and while some say “completely removed”,

a lot remains: (2) "youtube-dl" at DuckDuckGo

Engadget makes this point:

“liability for copyright violations might be an issue. The company removed pirate “bangs” (shortcuts for pirate sites) as far back as 2018, and competitors like Google and Microsoft are already downranking piracy-related results. A move like this could protect DuckDuckGo against costly copyright battles.” Engadget is part of the Yahoo family of brands

yt-dl says:

“We would also like to heartily thank our main website hoster Uberspace who is currently being sued in Germany for hosting our essentially business card website and who have already spent thousands of Euros in their legal defense.” https://yt-dl.org/

So yeah, search sites play with results for many reasons, including pay from advertisers, and no doubt letters from attorneys and other MIB. Plz let us know if you find something better, that doesn’t mess up over Tor.

Edit: You did notice the censorship here, above, for “family friendly” purposes. Oh the ironies that could not be discussed openly even here…

You starting with the censorship here meme?

No opinions were censored. If someone can’t use normal words instead of slurs to make their point that’s on them.

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If someone can’t use normal words instead of slurs

Oh sure. LOL.

IMO if @TheLastProject may use “asshole” when the mood strikes, then @gentr should be allowed to use “whore”. (1) F-Droid apps ratings and comments - #23 by TheLastProject (2) When you love freedom you give freedom - #2 by TheLastProject

Otherwise, it’s selective censorship and using a double standard. Sorry, but “it is what it is.”

I personally don’t quite agree those words are on the same level but I agree I could’ve used better terms so I’ve edited my post. It feels a bit lame you’re calling me out now instead of when that happened (that post is over 2 months old and this is the first time anyone has talked to me about it and I don’t believe anyone ever hit the report button ever), but fine, you could call that a double standard so I have hereby ensured my post no longer can be considered a double standard by any way. In the future, please report problematic posts (and if a mod does it and you feel worried because of that, feel free to ping another mod).

Now, can we get back on-topic?

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If you say you hate something, is that forbidden hate speech? IANAL, but I hate censorship. I hate having to click “reveal anyway” or “tiny pencil icon” to see what was really said or what was hidden or changed in posts, then try to understand the colour-coded changes. It’s a waste of time. Frankly, I hate most everything about Discourse forum software. I assure you I will most likely NOT be clicking the report (flag) button for anything other than spam posts, which I also hate. I hate when people delete their own posts, and other than spam, those are the only things I’ve ever flagged, iirc. That too was a pointless waste of time AFAIK.

I did not “call out” anything before, because I couldn’t care less about the language used. IMO editing your previous post was unnecessary, and shows you didn’t get my point. My point is: Mod-editing posts in THIS thread, ironically on a censorship topic, was unnecessary and uncalled for.

For the record: (a) TWO previous posts were linked. (b) The free dictionary calls “asshole” vulgar slang, but (pun intended) only uses “vulgar” deep down in one definition of “whore”. (See Asshole - definition of asshole by The Free Dictionary and Whore - definition of whore by The Free Dictionary )

Regardless, Thank you for doing the Mod job. I would not wish it on my worst enemy, so to speak. I assume all the “staff” do the best job they can. This was intended as constructive criticism, of the obfuscating/censoring of posts in this thread particularly.

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yes for now Brave is good choice, I heard somewhere that the Mozilla cofounder create brave browser after it leaves Mozilla

How did you test brave exactly?

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I have compared Google, DDG and brave and looks like Google with safeSearch=OFF has less censorship than DDG/brave with safe search off

It was totally unexpected for me

DuckDuckGo’s supposedly private browser caught permitting ad tracking. Android police sources . https://www.androidpolice.com/duckduckgo-privacy-browser-caught-permitting-ad-tracking/

Hadn’t seen any posts about this yet, iinstead of making a new thread I decided to bring it up here since it relates to ddg.

It happens to turn out that the duckduckgo browser whitelists some of Microsofts trackers becausse of a deal between ddg and Microsoft.

Isn’t there a link just above your post?

Would it be viable that the app goes against F-Droid’s TOS (out of curiosity)?

In what way?

DuckDuckGo claims it’s a private browser but isn’t, and allows some of Microsoft’s trackers. I do not know if F-Droid allows apps that track its users.

I can read above since I just pointed above the post with the article… thanks :slight_smile:

But does THE APP track you even when you don’t visit a Microsoft tracker enabled site? Eg. if you go to https://fsf.org do they send this info to Microsoft? If not…

I do not know if F-Droid allows apps that track its users.

We do, but we tag such apps so users know what they install: https://monitor.f-droid.org/anti-feature/Tracking

Additionally, while Duckduckgo may allow Microsoft trackers it isn’t necessarily duckduckgo doing the tracking it’s the said Microsoft sites, or more specifically, Microsoft.

While I agree with the sentiment, Blake Masters is… well… in an effort to not turn things political and divide this thread along party lines, let’s just say he’s not the best source of data on why DDG should absolutely not be regarded as some shining beacon of online privacy and security in an otherwise insecure space. Sure, Google is probably a bigger offender where privacy invasion is concerned but Google also doesn’t purport to be just the opposite and everyone knows the BS they’re into/about.

DDG on the other hand claims to be all for privacy and respecting one’s right to it when that couldn’t be further from the truth. I wish I could remember the website address off the top by sadly they were http only so I don’t frequent it but it was an entire site devoted exclusively to warn people away from DDG and highlight all the many reasons why.

One giant red flag is that the founder and CEO, prior to starting DDG started something that I believe was called Names Database and from recollection, was effectively a really sneaky and deceitful way of getting individuals to give up, not only their sensitive data, but that of as many of their friends and family members as they could think of, which again, if memory serves correctly, Names Database turned around and sold to the highest bidder. Man I really wish I could find that website because it was chock-full of really shady stuff that not only the founder and CEO was guilty of personally but that the company as a whole was mired in. It makes me almost more distrusting of duck duck go than I am of Google because at least Google is fairly transparent about what they do with your data and what data they’re collecting, etc. I know they’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like they are much closer representation of corporate transparency in the tech space from a search engine provider, than DDG is.

Just my 2¢

PS. If anybody knows the name of that website I’m thinking of. Please let me know cuz I’ve been trying to figure it out for quite some time now. I can’t remember much about it, but I know that the URL was essentially a slam on duck duck go in and of itself like www.dontuseduckduckgo.com or something along those lines. For some reason I want to say it was created by a foreign national. Maybe someone from France? I could be way off base there but it seems to be sticking out in my memory as being relevant