Anti-free speech Big Tech platform LinkedIn has already interfered in the 2024 presidential election.
Last week, Microsoft-owned platform LinkedIn silenced Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy over his statements on climate change and China. LinkedIn claimed Ramaswamy’s statements on climate change and President Joe Biden’s China policy were laced with “misleading or inaccurate information,” according to screenshots tweeted by Ramaswamy. MRC Free Speech America reached out to LinkedIn for an explanation of why it censored a presidential candidate. A spokesperson told the MRC that it had restored access to Ramaswamy’s account and that it took action “in error.” Ramaswamy addressed this claim in a later tweet, saying, “This wasn’t a technical glitch, it was an intentional act of censorship of my views on Biden, China, and climate change. Typical Big Tech behavior: trying to cover their tracks after egregious election interference.” 
LinkedIn cited three specific posts it alleged violated the platform’s User Agreement and Professional Community Policies. Ramaswamy questioned what he called the “climate agenda” or the “climate religion” and the ESG movement by extension in two of the posts. Vivek said that “[t]he CCP is playing the Biden administration like a Chinese mandolin” in the third post.
In a video included with his initial tweet about the incident, Ramaswamy predicted that his account would be restored in short order due to his status as a presidential candidate and his access to people at LinkedIn. He warned, however, that “if they can do it to me, they can really do it to anybody.”
Ramaswamy laid out the timeline of events, challenging LinkedIn’s excuse that the censorship was an “error.” He explained, “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 asked them in writing to point out what was false. The employee doubled down & 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. Calling it an ‘error’ now is totally dishonest.”
Ramaswamy, who has been criticizing Big Tech censorship as unconstitutional for several years, took a strong stance in his video. He asserted that Big Tech platforms such as LinkedIn censoring open discussions about issues like climate change “are doing the work of the government through the backdoor, silencing speech that the government would never dare censor, could never censor under the constitution.” Ramaswamy further charged that this is “even more dangerous than direct government censorship in many ways.”
Finally, Ramaswamy challenged Microsoft’s CEO to condemn the censorship action taken by LinkedIn: “I challenge @SatyaNadella to publicly condemn LinkedIn’s censorship, or else this is just the beginning of 2024 election interference.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
