Dr. Hua Wei, a deputy director from Shanghai's Fudan University Real Estate Research Center, is trying to settle out of court with Sohu.com (SOHU) after the company refused to remove some online posts that were insulting to Dr. Hua.

Dr. Hua is asking Sohu.com to delete all the concerned content from its website immediately, make an apology to him and pay him CNY100,000 for emotional distress.

Dr. Hua also sent the name of the post publishers to Sohu.com, requesting it to remove the registrations of the users and the relevant posts. But Sohu.com said it had to protect its users' privacy and could not make those corrections.

A representative from Sohu.com says the company did not intend to harm Dr. Hua's reputation, but the company can not delete users' posts until there is evidence showing those posts are false.

Nevertheless, Sohu.com has initiated a special filter for Dr. Hua's name so that users will see any posts on him by using the search engine.

Neither party would reveal the nature of the libelous posts.