Baidu Investigated After Man Dies of Cancer

By Bridget O'Donnell

Authorities have launched an investigation into Baidu following the death of a college student who said he received information on cancer treatment from the search engine platform.

Wei Zexi, 21, from Shaanxi province, passed away last month after battling with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Just before his death, he accused Baidu of "misleading him to a fradulent cancer treatment" and taking money to promote shady medical treatments in its results.

According to reports, Wei used Baidu to search for hospitals that would treat his condition after other treatments failed. From a promoted result on the search engine, he found a hospital in Beijing that supposedly offered "highly effective experimental treatment developed in collaboration with Stanford medical school," according to NPR. Wei and his family raised more than RMB200,000 to pay for immunotherapy from the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps.

But despite the fact that his form of cancer is generally treated with surgery or chemotherapy, Wei went ahead with the procedure. State media later reported that the collaboration with Stanford never happened, and Wei's treatment eventually failed.
Wei Zexi's parents hold his portrait outside a funeral home in Shaanxi.

As it later turned out, the search result Wei received had been paid for. Though it was labeled as such, it's unclear if he knew that.

“Baidu, at that time I didn’t know how sinister it could be,” he wrote online. “Bidding for ranking on medical information, or the matter with the hemophilia page, should make it clear what sort of thing it was.”

"I don't want to die," he added. "My 21 years of effort have not yet born fruit. I still have dreams. I still want to see this wide world."

Baidu has drawn scrutiny for its paid results in the past. According to Beijing tech blogger Hong Bo, China's advertising laws aren't as strict when it comes to search engines and that consumers often don't understand that the top results are paid for.

"Baidu's promoted links have deceived users," he told NPR.

[Images via Sixth Tone, China Daily]

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