China introduced new regulations on Saturday, requiring search engines to clearly identify paid search ads and results, months after a cancer patient was misled by Chinese search engine Baidu, resulting in his death.  

Wei Zexi was a 21-year-old student who succumbed to a rare form of cancer in April. Before his death, Zexi detailed how a search on Baidu led him to seek cancer treatment at a Beijing hospital, which he later found out to be ineffective, expensive, and only partially approved as a therapy.

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Baidu faced widespread criticism after Wei's post came to light and China's netizens denounced the company for making money by advertising inauthentic search results. Baidu's CEO, Robin Li, was also summoned for talks by China's web regulators.

The Cyberspace Administration of China's (CAC) new regulations have issued tighter controls on search engines. The regulator said search engines should look into the "aptitude" of clients paying for ads before doing business with them and clearly mark the differentiation between paid-for search results and "natural searches."

China's Internet watchdogs have also prohibited search engines from displaying search results with obscene and subversive content.

"Internet search providers should earnestly accept corporate responsibility toward society, and strengthen their own management in accordance with the law and rules, to provide objective, fair and authoritative search results to users," the CAC said, according to Reuters.

Baidu responded to CAC's new regulations with a promise to cooperate with the regulators and work well within the confines of the law to provide "objective, fair and authoritative search results to users."

Tagschina, search engines, search engine results, Baidu, Wei Zexi, china search engine, China search engine results, search engine ads, China search engine ads