Probes find tech giant's objectivity compromised by profit
Chinese authorities on Monday demanded an overhaul of China's tech giant Baidu and a military hospital following a week-long investigation into the death of a young man who was allegedly conned into receiving substandard cancer treatment.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said Baidu relied excessively on profits from paid listings in search results, and did not clearly label such listings as the result of commercial promotion, compromising the objectivity and impartiality of search results.
Like other search engines, Baidu sells links that appear in search results. The more an advertiser pays, the higher it will appear in the search results. The public is likely to be misled by the search results they find on Baidu, the CAC said.
The CAC has ordered Baidu to formulate a new algorithm based on credibility by May 31 and to strictly limit the proportion of promotional content in a webpage to within 30 percent.
The authorities also vowed accelerated legislative efforts. Regulations on Internet information search service and interim measures to manage Internet advertising will soon be introduced by the CAC and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Public outcry toward Baidu and the military hospital was triggered by the death of a 21-year-old college student. Wei Zexi, who suffered from synovial sarcoma, died last month after receiving immunotherapy from a private biomedical center at the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps. The clinic allegedly lied to Wei's parents that its immunotherapy would guarantee an 80 to 90 percent survival rate and was the "most advanced technology in cooperation with Stanford University." Stanford has denied any such connection.
Baidu senior executive Xiang Hailong said that the company accepts the investigation results and will deeply reflect on the current problems, Xinhua reported.
Weak law enforcement
"The scandal is not so much a rectification of Baidu as a challenge for competent authorities. Baidu has repeatedly provided fake or inaccurate medical information, and was not dealt with seriously until recently, which shows the sluggish modernization of China's governance system, as well as its relatively weak law enforcement ability," Qin An, a cyber-security expert at the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, told the Global Times.
Qin believes that the investigation into Baidu was completed in a rush and the punishment is not severe enough to sooth public sentiment.
"The investigation is supposed to be an example of managing online platforms, but the results are not ideal," he said.
Some other analysts believe the investigation failed to clarify one of the key issues, which is whether paid listings can be seen as advertisements.
Wang Sixin, a law professor with the Communication University of China, told the Global Times on Monday that the issue is a core problem that has confused both judicial authorities and online users. He further noted that the regulations to be formulated by the CAC and the SAIC are unlikely to recognize online promotions as advertisements.
Clinic censured
The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) and the Central Military Commission (CMC) on Monday also released the results of an investigation into the Armed Police hospital.
The authorities have instructed the military hospital involved in the scandal to terminate its cooperation with the private company that contracted the hospital's cancer clinic, according to a CMC notice in March to completely halt all military-provided paid public services.
The hospital was also ordered to cease publishing false information and medical advertisements that might mislead patients and the public.
