Baidu in Thailand: Have Facts, Will Travel?

• In Event: Cultures of Fact Travel

Abstract

Chinese censorship practices ensure that facts are erased, created and modified anew, and tech companies operating in China deliver these facts endlessly as part of the conditions of their operation behind the Great Firewall. But Chinese tech giants are expanding abroad, concerning analysts and activists worried that these companies will impose on audiences outside China the shaping of facts they impose on users inside China, given their symbiotic relationship with the Chinese state.

This paper examines the recent expansion of one of these tech giants, Baidu, into Thailand. It asks: does Baidu, the world’s second-largest search engine, implement the information controls of the Chinese state concerning facts about contentious events, organisations and individuals for users searching in Chinese from Thailand? The paper tests search results from Baidu’s product in Thailand for users searching in Chinese from Thailand. It tests search results for two sets of ten terms. The first is a set of terms sensitive in China, and the second is a set of neutral terms. The paper finds that, contrary to expectations, Baidu does not implement the information controls in Thailand which it does at home. In this instance, Chinese facts don’t travel, with implications for how we understand the relationship between the Chinese state and Chinese tech companies, the expansion of Chinese tech companies abroad, and the nature of ‘facts with Chinese characteristics’ in the online space beyond the Great Firewall.

Author

• Sarah Logan Logan, University of New South Wales