Microsoft Blocks 1.5M Neocities Sites on Bing, Founder Blasts AI Support System

Neocities, the indie web host that aims to revive the spirit of early personal websites, has been blocked by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, removing roughly 1.5 million user sites from its search index. This led those sites, including both the main domain and subdomains, to no longer appear in Bing search results, effectively hiding them from users relying on the engine and services that depend on Bing’s index.

Speaking with Ars Technica, who first reported the story, Kyle Drake, founder of Neocities, said that he attempted “everything” to resolve the issue, including buying ads on Bing to contact a human support representative (via Windows Central). Once inside Bing’s webmaster tools, he encountered an automated support process that left open tickets unacknowledged.

After the report, Microsoft removed some inappropriate blocks, and the Neocities front page reappeared in search results. But many subdomains that should rank well remain excluded, Drake said.

Microsoft has pointed to policy enforcement aimed at keeping low‑quality or unsafe content out of Bing, but it has not identified specific problems or communicated clearly with Neocities about why valid sites were blocked, according to Drake.

The situation raises bigger questions about search engines and content visibility. Bing itself has faced criticism in the past for censoring or filtering results in different regions.

In the blog post from late January, Drake has urged users not to rely on Bing or Bing‑powered engines, noting that Google and other major search engines still index Neocities normally. He also warned that blocked results could expose users to phishing risks if misleading sites surface in place of legitimate ones.

Neocities says it will update the public if Bing reverses its decision or engages meaningfully on remediation.