Baidu—Baidu's paid medical advertising linked to patient death
Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old college student, died after receiving unproven cancer treatment found through Baidu's promoted search results. Investigation revealed Baidu accepted payments from unlicensed medical providers for top search placement.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer Protection | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.590 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
Confirms product_decision May 3, 2016 verified
BBC reports on Chinese student's death linked to Baidu's paid medical search results
BBC News reported on the death of Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old student who died after receiving experimental cancer treatment found through Baidu's promoted search results, sparking national outrage in China.