A lawsuit has been filed with the US District Court in Manhattan by 8 New York residents. The plaintiffs are suing Baidu Inc and the People's Republic of China accusing the search engine of conspiring with the country's government to censor pro-democracy speech.

In their filing plaintiffs claim that the Chinese company violates the U.S. Constitution and name not only Baidu by also the Chinese government as defendants. According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer it is the first case of its type.

The complaint alleges that Baidu acts as an "enforcer" of policies by the ruling Communist Party in censoring such pro-democracy content as references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square military crackdown.

This censorship suppresses the writings and videos of the plaintiffs, who are pro-democracy activists, to the extent that the materials do not appear in search results, the complaint said.

It also violates U.S. laws because the censorship affects searches here, according to the complaint.

"We allege a private company is acting as the arm and agent of a foreign state to suppress political speech, and permeate U.S. borders to violate the First Amendment," Stephen Preziosi, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview.

Preziosi said the alleged censorship also violates federal and New York civil rights laws, as well as New York's human rights law, on the grounds that "an Internet search engine is a public accommodation, just like a hotel or restaurant."

The lawsuit seeks $16 million in damages, or $2 million per plaintiff, but does not seek changes to Baidu's policies.

"It would be futile to expect Baidu to change," Preziosi said. The plaintiffs live in the borough of Queens in New York City and on Long Island.