Online click bait behavior has to have a bottom line

On July 4, a young girl, Zhang Zixin, was taken away from home by two "amicable" homestay guests, who invited her to "a wedding" as a flower girl.

On Saturday, the 9-year-old was confirmed dead after her body was found in the sea dozens of miles from her home.

The two guests apparently committed suicide on July 8.

In this age of social media madness, a tragedy like this, wrapped in mystery and suspense, has little chance of escaping those hungry for sensationalism. Those for whom such a tragedy is click bait.

Such indecency is often associated with amoral web attention-seekers. This time, however, it was, not for the first time, Baidu, the largest domestic search engine operator, that was caught red-handed.

Information available so far indicates that, the website's news channel set up an account in the name of the young victim's father, releasing information on the search for the girl after her father lost contact with her and reported her missing to the police.

Baidu did not reveal it was not the little girl's father who was speaking until concerned followers of the account questioned the authenticity of the contents posted.

Under pressure, Baidu said it fired the news editor who created the account, but insisted it got consent from the victim's father, and meant to help.

What Baidu did was more likely than not a desperate move to stay relevant in the domestic internet market, where it has been on the losing side.

Baidu enjoys a de facto monopoly in the Chinese online searching market. But it has abused that position and hence has a credibility crisis.

Its notorious business model which puts those who pay more higher in its search results, drew public indignation nationwide for misleading users. At the peak of which the death of a young patient seeking online information for his treatment was widely attributed to Baidu's misleading role.

After that, search results on Baidu were found flooded with messages promoting the company's own products, leading users to declare "Baidu as a search engine has died".

Baidu does not want to die. And is striving hard to stay relevant.

But without learning some corporate ethics, it can at best be said to be among the walking dead.

And unfortunately, we have to say this is only the tip of the iceberg of this country's worrisome online public sphere at present.