Beijing
- Angry Chinese citizens on Tuesday welcomed news that Chinese internet and health authorities have started investigating advertising practices of the country's leading search engine Baidu.
The probe into Baidu's paid search listings comes amid public outcry over the death of a student, Wei Zexi, who underwent experimental cancer treatment in a hospital that had appeared at the top of his online search results, in a paid advertisement.
Before his death last month, Wei had publicly accused Baidu of promoting false medical information.
Internet users said the 21-year-old might not have died if he had not wasted valuable time undergoing immunotherapy treatment at the hospital.
Baidu “directs people to an evil and lying world,” one commenter on social microblogging platform Weibo said.
“It makes people lose trust and respect for technology.”
Baidu does display text at the end of advertised website descriptions with two characters stating that it is a promotion.
However, commenters say the notice is not prominent enough and preys on “ordinary people” who might not notice the caveat.
The National Internet Information Office, the National Commerce Bureau and the National Health and Family Planning Committee established the joint investigation team on Monday.
Also Monday, Baidu's shares dropped almost 8 percent on the US-based Nasdaq after China state media reports said chief executive Robin Li will be summoned by investigators over the student's death.
A Tuesday report by the state-controlled Jingji Cankao Bao said Li had been summoned for questioning on Monday.
Baidu has said it would cooperate with authorities, after earlier stating that their internal investigation had found the hospital had completely legitimate qualifications.
The investigation follows an earlier scandal in January where Baidu admitted it allows healthcare companies to pay for the right to moderate online health information forums.
China currently blocks about 3 000 websites and online services including Google's search engine, after Google refused to comply with Beijing's requests for it to censor politically sensitive content.
DPA