A try in the Baidu Tieba, the online community of Baidu.com shows literature discussion forums have been closed on May 23, 2016. (Photo/ Screen snap from the Internet)
(ECNS) -- China's largest search engine Baidu has shut down thousands of discussion forums about novels on its massive online community Tieba amid concerns over copyright violations.
Baidu said in an online statement that it has launched a comprehensive campaign against Internet piracy and copyright infringement, and it will close all literature discussion forums on user-generated Tieba accordingly.
The company is also making it easy for users to report pirated content and vows to scrub illicit content within 12 hours after verification. Baidu said it would announce the restart of such groups in future. By 10:47 a.m., it had closed more than 3,000 groups, it was reported.
Lin Tingfeng, founder of China's leading online literature site Qidian.com, declared victory on his Twitter-like Weibo. He said "this may be a temporary victory, but we believe justice will be done."
Online writer "Fennu de Xiangjiao", who has been fighting digital piracy, also praised Baidu's move but said it needs time to show an effect.
Many Chinese media outlets have exposed a piracy epidemic spreading via Baidu's online communities. An April 5 report by Southern Metropolitan Daily said the latest update of novels that require paid readership on other platforms could be found just a minute later on Tieba for free.
China's online literature industry was estimated to suffer losses totaling 7.77 billion yuan ($1.19 billion) in 2014 due to online piracy. About 64.3 percent of users who read pirated online novels on computers could be traced back to Tieba.
Baidu was recently embroiled in a scandal over the death of a college student who sought experimental cancer treatment by finding promoted medical information on the search engine.
