Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is spreading his anti-Woke message everywhere, including on social media. Inevitably, the big tech censorship would rear its ugly head, but who knew it would come from job search site LinkedIn?
The millennial nominee was banned for over a week for expressing fact-based opinions on China and climate change. Nobody told Vivek that LinkedIn is it only a place for HR stooges to chat about “work-life balance,” “leadership from behind,” and “inclusive hiring practices.”
Thankfully, Vivek’s account is up and running again – but it wasn’t until the contestant blew up the screenshots of what was deemed “hateful” that the social media networking page brought him back to life. So let’s take a look at what LinkedIn thought was so horrific that it needed immediate censorship.
Big Tech meddling in the elections has begun: @LinkedIn suspended my account and censored me this week for posting videos in which I, as a presidential candidate, offered fact-based views on climate policy and Biden’s relationship with China. They said it was against their policies regarding… pic.twitter.com/ND2dFVnGAg
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
Open to censorship
Vivek Ramaswamy’s LinkedIn account was censored for over a week for “misinformation” and “hate speech,” the tech giant claimed.
The three lines the company objected to were:
- “The CCP is playing the Biden government like a Chinese mandolin.”
- “For example, if climate religion was really about climate change, they would be concerned about moving oil production from the US to places like Russia and China.”
- “The climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a prerequisite for human prosperity.”
Oh man, these are downright violent claims! I find the first part epic; Not enough people use the Chinese mandolin in everyday insults to political opponents.
Mr. Ramaswamy received a communication from LinkedIn telling him the following:
“Your account has been restricted for repeatedly sharing content that contains misleading or inaccurate information.”
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Vivek inquired what was misleading about his statements, whereupon he received the following:
“We do not condone misinformation, hate speech, violence or any form of abuse on our platform. We understand that this may not be the response you want, but we are working to ensure that our policies are applied fairly and consistently to all of our members.”
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Since when is it inappropriate to oppose liberal topics of discussion? Since when is it violent or offensive to say you disagree with the left? Welcome to the early days of 1984 when LinkedIn is our Ministry of Truth.
It’s no secret why LinkedIn censored me for criticizing China’s influence on Biden and climate policy. That’s stunning. https://t.co/WW32P7XSOQ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
No mistake
After criticizing LinkedIn for its explicit political censorship, a spokesperson for the site said:
“The account was incorrectly restricted and is now available again.”
Now @LinkedIn (heard @Microsoft) tries to claim that their decision to censor me was a “mistake”. That’s ridiculous. On May 17th we discovered that my account was suspended. A LinkedIn employee said it was because I posted videos that contained “misleading or inaccurate information.” We…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 26, 2023
Surely it didn’t look like a mistake; The company took the time to be patronizing about Mr. Ramaswamy’s response to what justified his restriction in the first place. It sounds like the mistake was to censor someone with a large audience on other sites.
Mr. Ramaswamy explained What is this latest action from LinkedIn?
“This is the embodiment of what’s wrong in America: an arranged marriage between big tech companies and the left, achieving together what neither of them could achieve alone.”
He further explained:
“These are so-called privately held companies or publicly traded private companies that do the work of the government through the back door – thereby silencing speech that the government would never dare to censor.”
When I think about it… What ever happened to all those former CIA and FBI agents who had cushy jobs at Twitter before Elon freed the choke? LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman may have seen their “Open to Work” banners.
A side job
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is a typical tech giant billionaire. to have in addition Visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island of debauchery, he’s literally a heavyweight in Democratic campaign fundraising.
Last year he did donated over $4 million for the 2022 Democratic midterms. So did Mr. Hoffman told a reporter recently about his involvement in the upcoming presidential campaign:
“The short answer is I will spend as much as I can and it takes and is effective to beat Trump.”
And this is how it begins…
LinkedIn censors presidential candidate who says fossil fuels are ‘necessary for prosperity’
LinkedIn, whose founder Reid Hoffman funded the “Russian Bot” scam against GOP candidate Roy Moore, backed Trump accuser E. Jean Carrol’s lawsuit and suspended the account of…— Lawyerforlaws (@lawyer4laws) May 25, 2023
This isn’t the first time LinkedIn has censored conservative voices. For example, LinkedIn was the focus of the congress in 2021 blocking Journalists and researchers critical of the CCP said they had to shut down their Chinese website.
Gretchen Smith, founder of the Code of Vets and Air Force veteran, made headlines last year 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 North Carolina. I ate in a garden, got the name on the communal angel tree at Christmas, bought clothes at flea markets and, if I was lucky, Sky City on a rare occasion. I went to the Air Force and then went to college. I made it possible.”
LinkedIn said the post was “hate speech.” And earlier this year, Gabby Franco was an Olympian censored Because on a contribution picture she held up two guns and asked her followers which weapon they prefer.
The point
Mr. Ramaswamy explained to a group of CNBC speakers:
“Free speech is not for the speech we love. It’s for the speech we don’t love.”
We live in a sad world where people need to be reminded of this simple fact. Vivek may not be Open to Work, but he is Open to Run – this free speech absolutist is encouraged to see how far he can go.
Appear on campus. The downtown. left media. As candidates, we have to go where they tell us not to go. Only in this way can we revitalize open debate and free speech: the ideals on which this nation was founded. pic.twitter.com/jy22L2ak7D
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
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