BBC Chinese News reported that, on May 18, 2011, eight New York residents filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government and China’s biggest search engine vendor Baidu for blocking pro-democracy Internet content. The suit asks for US$16 million in damages. It is believed that this is the first time a lawsuit against a company has also included the Chinese government. Chinese spokesperson Jiang Yu commented on the lawsuit, saying that the Chinese government follows worldwide common rules to manage the Internet and foreign courts do not have jurisdiction over this matter. Baidu, a NASDAQ-100 index company, proactively filters “sensitive words” based on the Chinese government’s requirements. China also blocks popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Source: BBC Chinese, May 19, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2011/05/110519_baidu_lawsuit.shtml