DuckDuckGo to Down-Rank Sites Associated With Russian Disinformation

DuckDuckGo is now down-ranking sites associated with Russian disinformation in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, but some critics say the change amounts to censorship.

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg announced the down-ranking on Twitter. “Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create,” he wrote in the tweet, which included the hashtag StandWithUkraine. 

“At DuckDuckGo, we've been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation,” he added. 

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Weinberg didn’t elaborate on the decision, or how the down-ranking will work. But his tweet comes more than a week after the European Union announced it would ban the “Kremlin’s media machine” for spreading propaganda justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Since then, the internet industry has responded by blocking access to Russian state-sponsored media outlets such as RT and Sputnik News for users in the EU. In addition, Twitter has placed warning labels on tweets linking to Russian state media. (Google News decided to de-rank RT and Sputnik News back in 2017 for allegedly circulating propaganda.)

Still, not everyone is a fan of DuckDuckGo’s decision. On Twitter, some users equated the down-ranking to censorship. Others referenced DuckDuckGo’s commitment to “unbiased search.”

“So you are censoring your users? DDG now decides what is or isn't misinformation? This decision should be left to the user,” wrote one user. 

“​​You've got that magic ‘disinformation finder’ eh?” wrote another user. “You're just sure you're going to only downrank things that are wrong?”

DuckDuckGo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But on Twitter, Weinberg was quick to defend the decision, saying it was necessary to provide relevant search results over disinformation. 

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“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,” Weinberg tweeted to one user. 

On Twitter, DuckDuckGo software engineer Shane Osbourne also elaborated on what the company means when it says unbiased search results. “Everyone gets the same results, the results are not based on anything related to your personal information,” he said.

UPDATE: DuckDuckGo sent PCMag a statement on its decision to down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation:

"The primary utility of a search engine is to provide access to accurate information. Disinformation sites that deliberately put out false information to intentionally mislead people directly cut against that utility. Current examples are Russian state-sponsored media sites like RT and Sputnik. It's also important to note that down-ranking is different from censorship. We are simply using the fact that that these sites are engaging in active disinformation campaigns as a ranking signal that the content they produce is of lower quality, just like there are signals for spammy sites and other lower-quality content. In addition to this approach, for newsworthy topics we're also continuing to highlight reputable news coverage and reliable 'instant answers' at the top of our search results where they are seen and clicked the most. We're also in the process of thinking about other types of interventions."