China’s internet watchdog, Cyber Administration of China, has issued new rules for search advertising after a series of issues with the country’s dominant search platform Baidu.
The new rules, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, ensure that search engines provide “objective, fair and authoritative results” and put the rights and interests of the nation and public first.
The announcement comes after Baidu had been reprimanded for the way it delivers search results and was forced to rethink the way it carries out its paid search practice. It was sparked by the death of a student that died after undergoing controversial medication after seeing a search ad.
The announcement saw the regulator post a Q&A by an unnamed official, which said: “Some search results include illegal contents like rumors [sic], obscenity, violence, homicide and terror; some search results lack objectivity and fairness, which violates the corporate moral standards, misleads and affects public judgment.”
As part of the ruling, the regulator may demand reports and cached information from search providers if they are deemed to have content that threatens the public or national security.
Prior to the increased regulation Baidu had committed to cleaning up its act and had already committed to greater transparency between paid and natural search results.Experts from the Chinese digital ad industry welcomed the news, believing that Baidu’s move would have positive implications for the wider digital ad industry in China.
