Fang Zhouzi, via mybetter.cn
The folks at Qihoo 360 sure know how to sling some mud. And “science cop” anti-fraud and anti-counterfeit crusader Fang Zhouzi is no stranger to a mudfight either, come to think of it. So perhaps this is a match made in heaven: Qihoo 360 and Fang Zhouzi are going at it in the latest in Qihoo’s ongoing series of public slugfests.
The issue began when Fang updated his weibo account claiming that Qihoo’s 360 Browser is unsafe and collects personal data from users. In response, Sima Nana (a rather nationalist commentator and another famed skeptic) declared on weibo that he had uninstalled the 360 browser. Both men have quite sizeable followings, and the incident was apparently big enough that Qihoo felt it necessary to comment. In a statement published on the company’s weibo, Qihoo suggests that both Fang and Sima are bought-and-paid-for puppets of Baidu (which, readers will recall, Qihoo is currently engaged in a battle with for a share of China’s search market).
Now Fang Zhouzi has responded to Qihoo’s statement with one of his own:
In twelve years I have exposed many academics, business frauds, criticized many companies and people, all out of a sense of conscience and public interest. I have not once done this for money. This instance criticizing the 360 Browser is not an exception; I did not accept money for this from Baidu, Tencent, Jinshan, or any other company or person.
Fang also says he will be suing Qihoo 360 in court for “serious damage” to his reputation. If he does, I suspect Qihoo 360 will lose — something tells me that if it had any actual evidence Fang had taken money from Baidu, it’d be shouting it from the rooftops.
Either way, it should be interesting to watch this latest battle unfold. Fang’s is far from the first allegation that Qihoo’s products are unsafe and mine user data, so here’s hoping that this latest battle will finally unearth either a smoking gun or a reputable refutation.
[via Techweb]
The post Qihoo 360′s Latest War: Duking it Out With “Science Cop” Fang Zhouzi appeared first on Tech in Asia.