Privacy-focused search engine now a no-go in China

The US-based search engine DuckDuckGo appears to have been blocked in China, South China Morning Post reported, citing the company’s CEO. The privacy-oriented search engine, recently integrated into iOS with the release of the phone and tablet operating system’s eighth iteration, registered more than one billion searches last year – though only about 5% originated in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the company’s website. “We saw the online mentions that DuckDuckGo was blocked. We aren’t sure why. It has happened before and we were unblocked later,” said company founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg.