> Didn't they also have some kind of censorship uproar back in the day?

They recently down-ranked Russian propaganda-linked sites (like RT). I can't remember if that change has remained in place or they reversed it.

Oh right I remember now - I guess the point I'd make about that is I'd think there's a large overlap between those that are privacy-conscious and those that are conscious to those kinds of algorithmic manipulations.

I don't think toeing the line is a viable business strategy when your competition blows your search result quality out of the water. There's no benefit in that case.

I agree. There are cases where I appreciate this sort of thing, like when it's a child performing the search. When it's me doing it, I would prefer to not have sources artificially de-ranked because they're government-affiliated and/or propaganda. However, I could also see having some sort of visual indicator like Twitter used to use being useful. I don't always know in advance whether a particular source has a background conflict of interest I should be aware of...but it's still a bit of a slippery slope.

ExpressVPN is still good for hiding your IP if you torrent.