China’s web regulator said on Saturday that internet search engine must tighten up management of paid-for ads in search engine result, making clear which results are paid-for and limiting their numbers.
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The Cyberspace Administration of China’s (CAC) new regulations have issued tighter controls on search engines.
Under the new rules, which go into effect on August 1, search engines in China will be required to authenticate advertisers, identify the ratio of paid search results, and delineate between organic search results and ads. Such prohibitions have always been in place, but it is the first time China explicitly regulated paid search results. Chinese regulators last month imposed limitations on the variety of rewarding healthcare adverts carried by Baidu Inc (BIDU.O) following the death of a trainee who underwent a speculative cancer treatment which he found using China’s greatest internet search engine.
“Internet search providers should earnestly accept corporate responsibility toward society, and strengthen their own management in accordance with the law and rules, to provide objective, fair and authoritative search results to users”.
“Some search results include illegal contents like rumors, obscenity, violence, homicide and terror; some search results lack objectivity and fairness, which violates the corporate moral standards, misleads and affects public judgment”, the Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed CAC official as saying on the regulator’s website. The latest rules come after the body launched an investigation into Baidu’s operations, following the death of 21-year-old computer science major, Wei Zexi, earlier this year.
Many internet users are anxious because of medical ads which they consider as a threat to people’s health, according to the regulator. Part of the regulator’s directive was that search results shouldn’t harm the rights and interests of China, the public, and other legal organizations.
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Every paid-for listing is also now labeled, while listings for 2,518 medical institutions have been removed after a review of their qualifications, the company said.
