Mozilla has removed the Yandex Search, Mail.ru, and OK.ru default search providers from the Firefox browser over reports of state-sponsored content favored in search results.
Mozilla announced that they removed the Yandex and Mail.ru providers from the browser’s drop-down search menu but did not provide any details as to why this was done.
“Yandex and Mail.ru have been removed as optional search providers in the drop-down search menu in Firefox,” reads the release notes for Firefox 98.0.1.
In a statement to BleepingComputer, Mozilla says they removed the search providers from users in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Turkey for the “prevalence of state-sponsored content.”
“After careful consideration, we are suspending the use of Yandex Search in Firefox due to credible reports of search results displaying a prevalence of state-sponsored content, which is contrary to the principles of Mozilla,” a Mozilla spokesperson explained to BleepingComputer.
“This means for the time being Yandex Search will not be the default search experience (or a default search option) for users in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. In the meantime, we are pointing people to google.com.”
