Baidu Faces Fresh Legal Battle

The Chinese search engine Baidu is facing a fresh legal battle after another individual has died after attending a hospital that she saw advertised on the site. The woman, called Zhang Rui, underwent an operation on her nose but suffered from acute pain and nosebleeds after the operation. She became anxious and depressed and was diagnosed with a psychological disorder, before she fell from her apartment window in what her family suspect was suicide. The family has sued both the hospital and Baidu, saying that the hospital failed to provide her with good enough aftercare following her operation and her diagnosis with a mental illness. Baidu is being sued because it provided Miss Zhang with information about the hospital after showing it to her in an advertisement. The lawsuit comes almost a year after the death of a student, Wei Zexi, who died after undergoing a controversial medical procedure at a hospital that he found using Baidu. The Wei Zexi case led to a change in Chinese online advertising laws. The new case will prompt many to question whether the new laws have gone far enough. 

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