DuckDuckGo's search manipulation is just no different to Google's since essentially they are using Microsoft Bing's search results. [0] So the manipulation, down-ranking and censoring of search results was inevitable with tons of evidence of this: [1][2][3][4]
"At DuckDuckGo, we've been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.": [1]
At this point, DDG is a front for Microsoft using 'privacy' buzzwords. Might as well use Brave Search then.