Search Engine Censorship Test Results: Which Search Engine Is The Least Censored?

After hearing the unfortunate news that DuckDuckGo had deranked The Gateway Pundit from its search results, and announcing that it was going to start censoring “Russian disinformation”, I decided to test some alternative search engines to see how they compared against Google and Bing results.

The results were pretty shocking to me. Here’s a summary grid showing the highlights, but it’s worth reading the test results because this snapshot doesn’t tell the whole story.

• Google: passed 2 out of 10 tests.

• Bing: passed 7 out of 10 tests.

• DuckDuckGo: passed 5 out of 10 tests.

• Qwant: passed 5 out of 10 tests.

• Startpage: passed 1 out of 10 tests.

• Mojeek: passed 6 out of 10 tests.

• Yandex: passed 9 out of 10 tests.

The clear winner, by a MASSIVE margin, was Yandex. Not only did it pass the tests, it passed them with the highest quality results out of any of the search engines. I found Bing, DuckDuckGo, Qwant and Mojeek managed to squeak by with poor quality results. It’s almost as if they just delisted the major conservative news sites, but didn’t want to return MSM sources because they knew the query terms didn’t fit the MSM narrative, so all they had left to serve me were obscure sites.

The tests I ran and results are listed below. Keep in mind that your results may vary from mine because some search engines track your preferences, search history and location to customize your results.

Results for “Russia Today” – does RT show up on the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=russia+today

• yes – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=russia+today

• yes – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=russia+today&t=brave&ia=web

• no – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=russia+today&source=web

• yes – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=russia+today&t=web

• no – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=Russia+Today

• yes – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=russia+today&lr=20765

• yes – Yandex

Results for “Russian news” – does RT show up on the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=russian+news

• no – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=Russian+news

• yes – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=russian+news&t=h_&ia=web

• no – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=russian+news&source=web

• no – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=russian+news&t=web

• no – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=Russian+news

• no – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=russian+news&lr=20765

• yes – Yandex

Results for “Veritas” – does Project Veritas show up on the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=veritas

• no – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=veritas

• yes – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=veritas&t=h_&ia=web

• yes – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=veritas&source=web

• Yes, but last result out of 20 – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=veritas&t=web

• yes – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=veritas

• yes – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=veritas&lr=20765

• yes – Yandex

Results for “gateway” – does Gateway Pundit show up on the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=gateway

• no – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=gateway

• no – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gateway&t=h_&ia=web

• no – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=gateway&source=web

• yes – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=gateway&t=web

• no – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=gateway

• yes – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=gateway&lr=20765

• yes – Yandex

Results for “Ukraine biolabs” – Were at least 5 alt-media sources displayed on the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=ukraine+biolabs

• no, 0, but they did include a TASS (Russian news) story – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=ukraine%20biolabs

• yes, 6 – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ukraine+biolabs&t=h_&ia=web

• yes, 6 – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=ukraine+biolabs&source=web

• no, 2 – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=ukraine+biolabs&t=web

• yes, 7 – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no, 0 – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=ukraine+biolabs

• yes, 8, but sources were very obscure – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=ukraine+biolabs&lr=20765

• yes, 5, good results, included Infowars, Gateway, TASS and RT articles, no other engine did this – Yandex

Results for “CONFIRMED: Obama Began Biolab Agreements in Ukraine As Early As 2005 As Senator”, a random 6 hour old Infowars Headline. Was the Infowars article listed in the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=CONFIRMED%3A+Obama+Began+Biolab+Agreements+in+Ukraine+As+Early+As+2005+As+Senator

• yes (shocking) – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=CONFIRMED%3A%20Obama%20Began%20Biolab%20Agreements%20in%20Ukraine%20As%20Early%20As%202005%20As%20Senator&qs=ds&form=QBRE

• no – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=CONFIRMED%3A+Obama+Began+Biolab+Agreements+in+Ukraine+As+Early+As+2005+As+Senator&t=h_&ia=web

• no – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=CONFIRMED%3A+Obama+Began+Biolab+Agreements+in+Ukraine+As+Early+As+2005+As+Senator&source=web

• no, but a different Infowars article was listed – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=CONFIRMED%3A+Obama+Began+Biolab+Agreements+in+Ukraine+As+Early+As+2005+As+Senator&t=web

• no – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• yes, first listing – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=CONFIRMED%3A+Obama+Began+Biolab+Agreements+in+Ukraine+As+Early+As+2005+As+Senator

• no – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=CONFIRMED%3A+Obama+Began+Biolab+Agreements+in+Ukraine+As+Early+As+2005+As+Senator&lr=20765

• yes, first listing – Yandex

Results for “So here is my ‘assuming best intention’ current ‘working hypothesis’ concerning this hot mess”, a header quotation from a 6 hour old Dr. Robert Malone Substack article on the Ukraine biolabs. Was the Substack article returned on the first page of results?

• https://www.google.com/search?q=So+here+is+my+%22assuming+best+intention%22+current+%22working+hypothesis%22+concerning+this+hot+mess

• no – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=So%20here%20is%20my%20%22assuming%20best%20intention%22%20current%20%22working%20hypothesis%22%20concerning%20this%20hot%20mess&qs=n&form=QBRE&=%25eManage%20Your%20Search%20History%25E

• yes – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=So+here+is+my+%22assuming+best+intention%22+current+%22working+hypothesis%22+concerning+this+hot+mess&t=h_&ia=web

• yes – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=So+here+is+my+%22assuming+best+intention%22+current+%22working+hypothesis%22+concerning+this+hot+mess&source=web

• yes – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=So+here+is+my+%22assuming+best+intention%22+current+%22working+hypothesis%22+concerning+this+hot+mess&t=web

• yes – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=So+here+is+my+%22assuming+best+intention%22+current+%22working+hypothesis%22+concerning+this+hot+mess

• no – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=So+here+is+my+%22assuming+best+intention%22+current+%22working+hypothesis%22+concerning+this+hot+mess&lr=20765

• yes, only article returned – Yandex

Results for “Why did Russia invade Ukraine? 2022” – was at least one objective news story returned on the first page that included the reasons laid out in Putin’s invasion speech?

• No search engine, not even the Russian based Yandex, returned an objective article that included the reasons laid out in Putin’s invasion speech. Mojeek probably did the best since it only returned one mainstream western news source, while including results from various obscure Indian sources that are somewhat less biased than Western media. The level of disinformation I observed for this test was terrifying. Based on what I saw, I don’t believe it is possible for an uninformed person to learn the actual reasons Russia invaded from a web search on any search engine.

Results for “evidence of election fraud 2020” – at least 5 results showing major election fraud took place.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=evidence+of+election+fraud+2020

• no, 1 – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=evidence%20of%20election%20fraud%202020

• yes, 8, obscure sources – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=evidence+of+election+fraud+2020&t=h_&ia=web

• yes, 8, obscure sources – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=evidence+of+election+fraud+2020&source=web

• no, 2 – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=evidence+of+election+fraud+2020&t=web

• yes, 8, obscure sources – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no, 2 – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=evidence+of+election+fraud+2020

• yes, 9, not a single MSM article was returned, very obscure sources – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=evidence+of+election+fraud+2020&lr=20765

• yes, 14 – excellent sources, including NYPost, American Thinker, and Gateway – Yandex

Results for “vaccine deaths” – at least 5 results providing information on the number of deaths attributed to vaccines.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=vaccine+deaths

• no, 1 (CDC propaganda site) – Google

• https://www.bing.com/search?q=vaccine+deaths

• yes, 7 but most of these were spin propaganda or poor quality – Bing

• https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vaccine+deaths&t=h_&ia=coronavirus

• yes, 7 but most of these were spin propaganda or poor quality – DuckDuckGo

• https://search.brave.com/search?q=vaccine+deaths&source=web

• no, 2 useless articles – Brave

• https://www.qwant.com/?q=vaccine+deaths&t=web

• yes, 5 but most of these were spin propaganda or poor quality – Qwant

• https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

• no, 1 a CDC site – Startpage

• https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=vaccine+deaths

• yes, 6 – Mojeek

• https://yandex.com/search/?text=vaccine+deaths&lr=20765

• yes, 10 all super high quality sources – Yandex

posted from Michael’s Substack