A set of disturbing and sexually inappropriate results were recently found on Bing Search after a news website typed the word "Shutterstock."
Ars Technica notified Microsoft's Bing and said that most of the found trending search results on the platform carry several inappropriate keywords such as "little girl peeing," "big tits," "boy erection," and others.
Report: Disturbing results found in Bing Search after typing Shutterstock images
On April 23, Microsoft-owned web search engine platform Bing experienced scrutiny after Ars Technica revealed that most of the "trending" search results found on the platform were composed of sexual keywords. In response, Microsoft removed the feature.
Back when the report was still not posted, Bing Search had a "trending" feature on its front page. It shows all the trending results that people are searching for on the search engine. However, Ars Technica found some details disturbing.
Specifically, upon searching for the word "Shutterstock," the resulting results on the front page were all composed of sexually-inappropriate and obscene results. Keywords like "Boys Erection," "Big Tits," or "Girl Take Off Panties" were some of those that appeared.
Luckily, upon clicking on the said videos and images, no explicit content was found. It turns out that the "boys erection" videos have wholesome content that only refers to a boy literally "erecting" a tent. The "Big Tits" results were also found to be non-sexual videos as the word "tit" refers to a bird sitting on a tree.
Other explicitly-sounding videos like "girl peeing," "mature mom and young boy," and "girl take off panties," were also not found with any sexual videos or images. The "girl peeing" linked to a video showing a little girl sitting on a toilet bowl with her clothes, on while "mature mom and young boy" showed a mother and a smiling child.
The "girl takes off panties" was also a non-explicit video as it only linked to a video of an adult woman taking off her panties but with no naked content.
Microsoft does not tolerate these search results
Upon receiving the complaint from Ars Technica, Microsoft immediately sent a reaction regarding the inappropriate results. The company said that the trending preview feature has been deleted for the protection of its users.
"These search results were unacceptable, and we appreciate Ars Technica making us aware of them," Microsoft said in an emailed statement. "We've disabled the preview feature responsible for these results while we examine how they occurred and how we can prevent them in the future."
Shutterstock, the US-based stock photography company, clarified that the "trending" feature was not part of their system. They also said that the keywords do not violate any of their content policies since there was really no explicit content on the found images and videos.
"Having reviewed the video clips, Shutterstock can confirm that the content is available on the platform and is in compliance with our content policy," said Shutterstock. "However, the titles of the videos on what appears to be a 'Trending Articles' feature on Bing do not match the titles of the videos available on Shutterstock. We are in contact with Microsoft on the matter and requested to have Shutterstock content removed from the feature."
