百度因“段子”索赔500万,我们和这名被告博主聊了聊–寻找中国创客

What happened: A Weibo humorist by the username of “七点半的独角戏” (half past seven’s monologue) may have to pay the price for a satirical post ribbing Baidu and its co-founder Robin Li. The two-sentence microblog from May obliquely poked fun at the search engine’s past scandals, and was taken down shortly afterwards. Baidu is now suing the blogger, to the tune of 5 million RMB, for alleged damage to its reputation. The blogger told Chinese media that “normal people” would have gotten the joke, but lawyers say that the company may have a case.

Why it’s important: Baidu has proved quick to defend its somewhat spotty record before. Last July, it sued GQ Daily for a writing contest that made fun of inaccuracies in Baidu Maps, also for the sum of RMB 5 million. The latest case is most likely drawing attention for the relatively minor nature of the blog post, which was taken down in under three days.

Bailey Hu is based in China’s hardware capital, Shenzhen. Her interests include local maker culture, grassroots innovation and how tech shapes society, as well as vice versa.

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