Late last month, Axios reporter Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian revealed that LinkedIn was blocking her profile in China in order to avoid offending the ChiComs’ delicate sensibilities.
I woke up this morning to discover that LinkedIn had blocked my profile in China.
I used to have to wait for Chinese govt censors, or censors employed by Chinese companies in China, to do this kind of thing.
Now a US company is paying its own employees to censor Americans. pic.twitter.com/eRTq4u8rJl
— B. Allen-Ebrahimian (@BethanyAllenEbr) September 28, 2021
Pretty messed up that LinkedIn would be so diligent about doing the Chinese government’s bidding.
Fortunately, it looks like LinkedIn has very recently come a little closer to their senses:
LinkedIn: "We’re… facing a significantly more challenging operating environment & greater compliance requirements in China. Given this, we’ve made the decision to sunset the current localized version of LinkedIn, which is how people in China access LinkedIn,…later this year." pic.twitter.com/mL1fWrM9NN
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) October 14, 2021
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Not great that they didn’t just flip China the bird, but this is still a net good move on LinkedIn’s part.
Good. https://t.co/JbgsjOjVLD
— Noam "MF Blum" (@neontaster) October 14, 2021
Not a fan of Linkedin, but at the same time I can 👏 this. https://t.co/YyGqlaKw2N
— Robert Marcano (@robmv) October 14, 2021
Forced by the CCP's overregulation, not by their own accord.
— Bryan Ron (@BryanRon12) October 14, 2021
Hey, if being confronted by oppressive CCP policies is what gets LinkedIn to wake up, we’ll take it.
Though it’d be pretty great if this were ultimately what had done it:
I am taking credit for this, because when I closed my LinkedIn account last week, I told them that their boot-licking of Chinese Communists was vile.
— somebodys_kid (@somebodys_kid) October 14, 2021
Whatever works!