LinkedIn Restricts GOP Presidential Candidate’s Account, He Fires Back
On Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announced that his account was “locked” by LinkedIn, with the platform claiming that he posted “misleading or inaccurate information.” After he posted about the issue publicly, LinkedIn is now claiming that it was caused by an “error” — and now Ramaswamy is pushing back.
According to Breitbart News, LinkedIn specifically had an issue with comments made by Ramaswamy in three different videos he posted to the platform.
“The CCP is playing the Biden administration like a Chinese mandolin. China has weaponized the ‘woke pandemic’ to stay one step ahead of us. And it’s working,” Ramaswamy said in one video posted on February 5.
Another comment that LinkedIn took issue with, which was from a video posted on February 16, stated: “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. Yet, the climate religion and its apostles in the ESG movement have a different objective.”
The third video was posted on May 7, where Ramaswamy stated: “The climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
Ramaswamy’s team followed up with LinkedIn, asking what exactly was said that was false.
“We asked them in writing to point out what was false,” the GOP presidential candidate wrote in a press release. “The employee doubled down and said they do not tolerate ‘misinformation, hate speech, violence or abuse.’ It took several media inquiries before they restored the account nearly a week later.”
After Ramaswamy posted publicly about LinkedIn’s actions, a spokesperson for the company tried to backtrack on the issue, telling Breitbart News: “The account was restricted in error and it’s now back up.”
On Friday, the Republican presidential candidate called out LinkedIn — arguing that their claim that the restriction was due to an “error” is “laughable.”
“Calling it an ‘error’ now is completely dishonest. This wasn’t a technical glitch, it was an intentional act of censorship of my views on Biden, China, and climate change,” Ramaswamy said. “Typical Big Tech behavior: trying to cover their tracks after egregious election interference.”
He went on to call for LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, to publicly condemn the platform’s censorship.
“I challenge Satya Nadalla [sic] to publicly condemn LinkedIn’s censorship, or else this is just the beginning of 2024 election interference,” he added.
The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles discussed the incident on his podcast, agreeing that it was “election interference.”
