LinkedIn Censors GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for Commenting on Biden’s Ties to China

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

RELATED: Real Fascism: DHS, FBI Work Directly With Social Media Companies To Censor, Suppress Information

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.”

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. 

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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.

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USAF Retired, Bronze Star recipient, outspoken veteran advocate. Hot mess mom to two monsters and wife to equal parts... More about Kathleen J. Anderson

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