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

[Richard]

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=CONFIRME...As+Senator

    yes (shocking) – Google

    https://www.bing.com/search?q=CONFIRMED%...%20Senator&qs=ds&form=QBRE

    no – Bing

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=CONFIRMED%3A+O...As+Senator&t=h_&ia=web

    no – DuckDuckGo

    https://search.brave.com/search?q=CONFIR...As+Senator&source=web

    no, but a different Infowars article was listed – Brave

    https://www.qwant.com/?q=CONFIRMED%3A+Ob...As+Senator&t=web

    no – Qwant

    https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

    yes, first listing – Startpage

    https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=CONFIRME...As+Senator

    no – Mojeek

    https://yandex.com/search/?text=CONFIRME...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+...s+hot+mess

    no – Google

    https://www.bing.com/search?q=So%20here%...hot%20mess&qs=n&form=QBRE&=%25eManage%20Your%20Search%20History%25E

    yes – Bing

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=So+here+is+my+...s+hot+mess&t=h_&ia=web

    yes – DuckDuckGo

    https://search.brave.com/search?q=So+her...s+hot+mess&source=web

    yes – Brave

    https://www.qwant.com/?q=So+here+is+my+%...s+hot+mess&t=web

    yes – Qwant

    https://www.startpage.com/sp/search

    no – Startpage

    https://www.mojeek.com/search?q=So+here+...s+hot+mess

    no – Mojeek

    https://yandex.com/search/?text=So+here+...s+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...fraud+2020

    no, 1 – Google

    https://www.bing.com/search?q=evidence%2...aud%202020

    yes, 8, obscure sources – Bing

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

    yes, 8, obscure sources – DuckDuckGo

    https://search.brave.com/search?q=eviden...fraud+2020&source=web

    no, 2 – Brave

    https://www.qwant.com/?q=evidence+of+ele...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...fraud+2020

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

    https://yandex.com/search/?text=evidence...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

https://libertariannews.org/2022/03/10/s...-censored/

[mzacharias]

I just typed 'illuminati' into Yandex and an invitation to join came up on top:

https://www.illuminatiofficial.org/

???

[mzacharias]

Also just read on wiki : "In February 2024, Yandex N.V. announced the sale of the majority of its assets to a consortium of Russia-based investors. In July 2024, the $5.4 billion sale was completed, giving the Kremlin more control over the business."

There's also a Yandex browser?

"Yandex Browser is Safe Because the browser itself has built-in protection, and when you go to a dangerous site page or even automatic pop-UPS, the Browser itself automatically BLOCKS THEM, telling the user that this site or anything else is not safe or viruses are detected."

[mzacharias]

I tried Russia Today on both the Google and Yandex. Both gave RT on top.

I'm really interested in this thread as I've noticed that it's more time-consuming than it used to be to get to information that you're looking for sometimes.

Does anyone here use the Yandex browser?

[mzacharias]

Going back to the Illuminati site...what is going on there?

[Richard]

I tried Russia Today on both the Google and Yandex. Both gave RT on top.

I'm really interested in this thread as I've noticed that it's more time-consuming than it used to be to get to information that you're looking for sometimes.

Does anyone here use the Yandex browser?

I use Yandex search engine but not the browser. Google is just about worthless for any serious researcher. They censor everything. They should just change their name to censor.com. 

[mzacharias]

Yeah it's pretty naff at times

[Richard]

I just learned a new word. I never heard "naff" before. I had to look it up, and I see it's a British term. I've been hearing the censorship is terrible out there. I hear they arrest people if they post the truth. I'm hearing they want to start doing that over here too. It amazes me it's getting traction because America is supposed to be the land of free speech.