Chinese company cloned Washington Post website: FT

A lookalike of the Washington Post website has just emerged in China, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The website used the Washington Post masthead and distributed content not just from the Washington, D.C.-based newspaper, but also stories from the state news agency Xinhua, which were tagged as Washington Post copy, the report added.

The website was operated by Sun News, a Chinese client of the Washington Post News Service, the report said.

That agreement called for allowing Sun News to republish a limited number of the Washington Post’s stories and did not allow Sun News to use the newspaper’s brand “in the way they did,” the Financial Times reported, citing Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti.

She said the issue is believed to be a “simple misunderstanding about the contract,” the Financial Times reported.

Sun Media told the Financial Times it had not breached its two-year contract with the U.S. news service. CNBC could not reach Sun Media for comment.

The website has since been redesigned.

Washington Post did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Source: CNBC