Baidu ordered to pay nude photos victim

[MarrickG]

CHINA - China's largest search engine Baidu.com has been found guilty of neglecting its duty, resulting in widespread distribution of a graduate's nude photographs.

The Jing'an District People's Court has ordered Baidu.com to pay 22,000 yuan (S$4,545.20) in compensation and publish an apology to the victim on its website .

It was also ordered to break all connections to the photos and delete the victim's personal information.

The victim, known as 'Maritime girl' or Hai Yun Nu in Chinese because she graduated from the Shanghai Maritime University, became an online sensation in May, last year when her nude photos were posted on the Internet.

The pictures were posted by her ex-boyfriend, who sought revenge when the 26-year-old victim refused to reconcile with him after they split up.

Hai Yun Nu complained to the site but links to the images and even her personal information remained available on Baidu.

In her suit, she said Baidu neglected its duty to monitor content and delete the pictures, adding that its failure to act violated her privacy and damaged her reputation.

Baidu argued that it had tried to erase images and links to the victim's pictures but it was impossible to delete all because some netizens continued to upload the items to third-party sites.

The court ruled that Baidu didn't take necessary measures to screen out search results of the key words "hai yun nu", which were widely known by the public due to media coverage.