China’s Baidu To Invest CNY100 Million To Eliminate Bad Internet Info

Unlike its overseas rival Google.com, Chinese search engine Baidu.com is apparently showing that it is fully committed to working with the Chinese government to enhance the government’s ability to rid the Internet of “bad”information.

According to Chinese news website Techweb, Baidu has announced the launch of a special campaign, and it will invest CNY100 million to set up a fund to crack down on bad Internet information.

The special campaign will include four measures: Baidu will invest CNY100 million to enhance its technology and management while enlarging its professional team; it will cooperate with the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre to open fast reporting channels on each of its search result pages; it will cooperate with government organs such as public security and the food and drug administration departments to crack down on key cases; and it will set up a CNY10 million fund to propagate Internet safety among Chinese netizens.

Robin Li, chief executive officer of Baidu, reportedly told local media that since its founding, Baidu has been committed to providing Chinese netizens with an easy way to gain information. With the development of the Internet, it is more important to provide the netizens with “correct information”.

Shen Haoyu, senior vice president of Baidu, also reportedly said that Baidu has been striving to fight bad and false Internet information. From January to November 2010, it has reportedly cataloged over ten million false web pages and over one million false websites.

Meanwhile, the company has approved over 800 organizations to join its open platform. These organizations apparently provide correct customer service phone numbers and services like software downloads.