Baidu Launches Brazilian Search Engine - Apparently With Chinese Political Censorship

Baidu's Brazil Search Engine

[Note: The searches for this post were not conducted from within Brazil. If anyone in Brazil sees different results, please post a comment or contact me using the G+ link at the bottom right of this blog.]

On July 18, 2014, the state sponsored China Radio International reported "Chinese internet search provider Baidu has launched its Brazilian site in Portuguese, Convergencia reports. . . . Baidu also signed a cooperation agreement with the country's science and technology ministry for the development of internet in Brazil."

According to the South China Morning Post:

Baidu spokesperson Kaiser Kuo said that the Brazilian version of Baidu would come decked out with several features not available in the Chinese version. . . . Kuo also added that users can “definitely expect Thai...and Arabic [versions of Baidu] in the not-too-distant future.”

This screenshot shows that a search for “Falun Gong” on br.baidu.com appears to only return results from the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.

This screenshot shows that a search for “Xi Jinping” (习近平) in Chinese on br.baidu.com appears to only return results from websites operated by China’s central government and the Chinese Communist Party.

These screenshots show that a search for “Xi Jinping” (习近平) in Chinese on br.baidu.com restricted to the website “Boxun” (which is banned in China) returns only the home page of that site. While the same search on the Brazilian version of Bing returns tens of thousands of results.

These screenshots show that a search for “Gao Zhisheng” (高智晟 - a civil rights lawyer currently imprisoned in China) in Chinese on br.baidu.com returns no results. While the same search on the Brazilian version of Bing returns tens of thousands of results.

Site de buscas chinês Baidu lança sua versão para o Brasil