BEIJING: China has ordered Microsoft’s Bing global search platform to suspend the function of auto-complete predictions for seven days on Monday.

“The relevant government institution has requested that Bing China suspend the auto-suggest feature in mainland China for seven days in accordance with Chinese laws,” the China office of the search engine said in a statement. In December, the Chinese authorities ordered Bing to suspend the function for 30 days.

In November, Internet search engine Yahoo pulled out of China due to the increasingly challenging business and legal environment. The Yahoo pullout came on the very same day as the implementation of China’s Personal Information Protection Law, which curbs data collection by technology companies.

Yahoo was the second US technology firm to downsize operations there in less than a month following the closure of Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn social-networking site. In mid-October Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn said it was leaving China due to the country’s tougher censorship regulations. (ANI/Sputnik)