Baidu in China Sanlu poisoned milk scandal
p2pnet news view | Advertising:- “Two Chinese babies suffering from kidney stones after drinking contaminated [milk] formula,” says a caption in The Guardian referring to the Reuters pic we’ve superimposed over three promo shots of China’s Sanlu product.
“Since the first reported case in March, over 70 400 1200 babies in China have developed kidney stones after drinking Sanlu brand milk powder,” says chinaSMACK, going on:
“One baby has Two babies have already died.”
Says official China state news agency Xinhua »»»
Nationwide, more than 6,200 infants have developed kidney stones after drinking Sanlu’s baby formula, tainted with the chemical melamine, which was believed to have helped to increase protein content.
The Sanlu case, “is particularly alarming because the recall took so long and apparently required the intervention of the New Zealand government, which was alerted by Sanlu’s New Zealand-based partner, Fonterra,” says The Guardian.
And in the middle of it all is China search engine Baidu, with the question being asked whether or not it “managed” search results containing negative news about the Sanlu baby-milk scandal
‘ … counterfeit milk powder…’
“Sanlu initially claimed that their products have repeatedly past quality tests, meet national quality standards, and the sick babies must have been fed counterfeit milk powder that used their brand name,” says chinaSmack, continuing:
“However, last night, the Ministry of Health pointed out that there is suspicion of melamine contamination last night. Melanine can be added to make food products appear to have more protein. Minutes after the government announcement, Sanlu issued a recall of 700 tons of milk powder. They said they wanted to be responsible to their consumers, and also claimed that a self-inspection showed melamine contamination for all milk powder produced before August 6th.”
New scandal
“With around 70% market share in search in China, Baidu has seemingly actualized the nightmare scenario that others have warned is within Google’s power to unleash with its dominance and influence in the West. Whereas Google is at least guided by its unofficial ‘Don’t Be Evil’ ethos, Baidu in China is unfettered by any such principles.”
That was Maths in his in-depth analysis of China’s Baidu which, as he says, “owes its success to its MP3 Search service, which takes surfers directly to music”.
Now, a copy of a letter from the Teller public relations firm representing the Sanlu Group is online, says a chinaSMACK update, going on »»»
In the letter, Teller advised Sanlu to pay Baidu 3 million RMB to have Baidu manage search results containing negative news about Sanlu (supposedly not all news could be censored but most results coming from smaller websites could be deleted).
When Baidu heard the rumors, they quickly denied working with Sanlu. A representative from Teller also said the letter was fake.
On September 13th, ‘21st Century Economic Report‘ reported that Baidu admitted receiving a ‘Sanlu Public Relations Crisis Proposal’ letter from a public relations firm, but Baidu could not confirm that it was the Teller firm.
The source also stated that although Baidu cannot confirm whether or not Sanlu adopted the public relations firm’s recommendations, Baidu has never entered into cooperation with Sanlu. “Right now, anyone can find in Baidu’s search results information related to Sanlu milk powder, Baidu did not delete.”
But this reporter discovered that all of the Sanlu news on Baidu only appeared after September 12th. Using a widely circulated popular internet post title ‘Sanlu, please do not make excuses in the face of children’s lives and health’ as a keyword search, September 12th afternoon: Google showed 11,400 results, while Baidu only had 11 results.
September 13th morning: Google shows 11,800 results, while Baidu “shot up” to 54 results.
In a statement, “Baidu again expresses its committment to its new media communication responsibilities of providing comprehensive, objective, and timely information in all major public incidents,” says chinaSMACK.
Stay tuned.
The Guardian -China tainted milk scandal spreads to ice cream and yoghur, September 18, 2008
chinaSMACK – Kidney Stone Gate: Fake Baby Milk Powder, Sanlu & Baidu?, September 12, 2008
Xinhua - Sacked Sanlu chairwoman removed from local legislature over baby formula scandal, September 18, 2008
in-depth analysis - Baidu: the Dark Side, September 15, 2008
chinaSMACK – Kidney Stone Gate: Baidu Denies Censoring Search Results, September 17, 2008
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September 19th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
China doesn’t care. 6,200 babies? What is that, like 0.0000000000000001% of their population? They only care when it effects their perceived absolute control.