Links to fake drug sites land Baidu in soup

BEIJING: Luck seems to be turning on its head for Baidu, China’s largest search engine, which was about to make a massive pole vault in the market following an official move to ban Google. The winds did not blow the Baidu way as the government recently renewed the license for the US search engine. And now, Baidu is facing a range of criminal charges.

The latest ‘expose’ comes from CCTV, the official television , which said Baidu and other search providers have profited by promoting websites selling fake drugs. The ministry of public security said recently that one of Baidu’s employees have made huge gains by promoting gambling websites during World Cup matches.

The search engine has also been asked by a court to pay damages to a woman, who complained it had allowed the platform to be used to distribute obscene photographs of her even after she had requested it to stop doing so.