Baidu under fire for profiting from medical forums
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E-mail Xinhua, January 14, 2016
For many, the hemophilia forum scandal brought back those memories, triggering some scathing comments.
"These are definitely ill-gotten gains, and Baidu is losing its conscience," wrote a user named Wu Zhixi on instant messaging service Wechat.
"I will never use Baidu anymore," said another user "Debug Kun."
Fang Xingdong, founder of blogchina.com, said people were agitated because Baidu, as a key search engine, serves as an "entrance" to the Internet.
"If the entrance is crooked, all the information will be twisted," he added.
Some scholars called for rationality and a legal point of view.
Cong Lixian, law professor with Beijing Foreign Studies University, said it is more important to discuss whether Baidu should assume liability for users' losses brought about by the fake hospitals and doctors.
Zhu Wei, researcher at China University of Political Science and Law, said there is nothing wrong with Baidu pursuing profits, but the company should be cautious about the ways it makes its fortune.
The crisis forced Baidu to stop cashing in on its disease-themed platforms. However, other Tieba sub-forums are still open to advertisers.
Even among its disease forums, Baidu is not fully clean. While the hemophilia forum has been handed back to its former administrators, users found that forums on Epilepsy, Parkinson's Disease and others are still run by medical groups.
Zhu suggested that Baidu should not give commercial groups access to any forums related to people's health or economic security.
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