GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is everywhere spreading his message of anti-woke far and wide, including on social media. Inevitably big tech censorship would rear its ugly head, but who would’ve thought it would come from the job seeker site LinkedIn?
The millennial candidate was restricted for over a week for stating fact-based opinions on China and climate change. Nobody told Vivek that LinkedIn is only a place for human resources stooges to bloviate on ‘work-life balance’ and ‘leading from the back’ and ‘inclusive hiring practices.’
Luckily, Vivek’s account is back up and active – but it wasn’t until the candidate blasted the screenshots of what was deemed ‘hateful’ that the social media networking site brought him back to life. So, let’s take a look at what LinkedIn thought was so terrible it needed immediate censorship.
Big Tech election interference has begun: @LinkedIn locked my account & censored me this week for posting videos where I expressed fact-based views as a presidential candidate about climate policy and Biden’s relationships with China. They said it violated their policies relating… pic.twitter.com/ND2dFVnGAg
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
Open To Censor
Vivek Ramaswamy’s LinkedIn account was censored for over a week for what the tech giant claimed was “misinformation” and “hate speech.”
The three lines that the company took issue with were:
- “The CCP is playing the Biden administration like a Chinese mandolin.”
- “If the climate religion was really about climate change, then they’d be worried about, say, shifting oil production from the U.S. to places like Russia and China.”
- “The climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
Oh boy, those are some downright violence-inducing claims right there! I think the first one is epic; not enough people use the Chinese mandolin in everyday insults against political adversaries.
Mr. Ramaswamy received a notice from LinkedIn letting him know:
“Your account was restricted for repeatedly sharing content that contains misleading or inaccurate information.”
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Vivek inquired what was misleading in his statements, to which he received the following:
“We don’t tolerate misinformation, hate speech, violence or any form of abuse on our platform. We understand that this might not be the response you wanted, but we work to apply our policies in a fair and consistent way for all of our members.”
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Since when is it inaccurate to counter liberal talking points? Since when is it violent or abusive to say you disagree with the left? Welcome to the beginnings of 1984, where LinkedIn is our Ministry of Truth.
It’s no mystery why LinkedIn censored me for criticizing China’s influence over Biden & climate change policies. This is staggering. https://t.co/WW32P7XSOQ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
Not A Mistake
After blasting LinkedIn for its explicit political censorship, a spokesperson for the site said:
“The account was restricted in error and it’s now back up.”
Now @LinkedIn (owned by @Microsoft) is trying to claim their decision to censor me was an “error.” This is laughable. On May 17 we noticed my account was locked. A LinkedIn employee said it was because I had posted videos containing “misleading or inaccurate information.” We…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 26, 2023
Sure didn’t look like an error; the company took the time to patronize Mr. Ramaswamy in their response to him on what warranted his restriction in the first place. It sounds like the error was in censoring someone with a sizeable audience on other sites.
Mr. Ramaswamy explained what this recent action by LinkedIn is:
“This is the embodiment of what’s wrong in America: an arranged marriage between large tech companies and the left that together accomplishes what neither could alone.”
He went on to illustrate:
“These are so-called privately held companies, or publicly traded private companies, that are doing the work of the government through the backdoor – silencing speech that the government would never dare to censor.”
Come to think of it… What did ever happen to all those former CIA and FBI operatives that had cushy jobs at Twitter before Elon freed the bluebird? Perhaps LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman saw their “Open to Work” banners.
A Side Hustle
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman is your typical tech giant billionaire. In addition to having visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island of debauchery, he’s a heavyweight – literally – in Democratic campaign donations.
Last year he donated over $4 million to the 2022 midterm Democrat races. Mr. Hoffman also told a reporter recently regarding his involvement in the upcoming presidential race:
“The short answer is I will spend as much as I possibly can and it takes and is effective to beat Trump.”
And so it begins …
LinkedIn Censors Presidential Candidate Who Says Fossil Fuels ‘Required For Prosperity’
LinkedIn, whose founder Reid Hoffman funded ‘Russian bot’ hoax against GOP candidate Roy Moore Underwrote Trump accuser E. Jean Carrol’s lawsuit, Has locked the account of…— Lawyerforlaws (@lawyer4laws) May 25, 2023
This isn’t the first time LinkedIn has censored conservative voices. For example, in 2021, LinkedIn came under so much congressional scrutiny for blocking reporters and researchers critical of the CCP that they had to shut down their Chinese site.
Last year Code of Vets founder and Air Force veteran Gretchen Smith made headlines when she was censored for expressing her views on Biden’s student debt bailout:
“I am not responsible for your student debt. I grew up in poverty in NC. Ate from a garden, name was on community Angel Tree for Christmas, bought clothes from yard sales & if I was lucky, on a rare occasion Sky City. I joined the Air Force then went to college. I made it happen.”
LinkedIn said that post was “hate speech.” And earlier this year, Olympian Gabby Franco was censored because, in a post picture, she was holding up two firearms, polling her followers on which gun is their preferred.
The Point
Mr. Ramaswamy explained to a panel of CNBC talking heads:
“Free speech is not intended for the speech we love. It is intended for the speech that we do not love.”
We live in a sad world that people need to be reminded of this simple fact. Vivek might not be “Open to Work,” but he is Open to Run – this free-speech absolutist is encouraged to see how far he can go.
Show up on college campuses. The inner city. Left wing media. As candidates we need to go where they tell us *not* to go. That’s the only way we revive open debate, free speech: the very ideals this nation was founded upon. pic.twitter.com/jy22L2ak7D
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
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