According to Just the News, 37-year-old Republican primary candidate and business owner Vivek Ramaswamy claims LinkedIn blocked his account after he posted political videos criticizing President Joe Biden’s relations with China and sharing his views on climate policy.
“Big Tech election interference has begun: [LinkedIn] locked my account & censored me this week for posting videos where I expressed fact-based views as a presidential candidate about climate policy and Biden’s relationships with China. They said it violated their policies relating to ‘misinformation, hate speech, and violence.’ Sad but not surprising” the Republican candidate posted on Twitter, referring to screenshots of his emails with LinkedIn officials.
Mr. Ramaswamy added that the restriction is consistent with the larger issue of censorship by Big Tech. In his blog post, he stated, “Two years ago, Big Tech censored individuals who argued against closing schools for Covid. Now they are censoring presidential candidates who argue that fossil fuels are necessary for economic growth. I was not censored because it is untrue. They censored me because what I said was true.”
Big Tech election interference has begun: @LinkedIn locked my account & censored me this week for posting videos where I expressed fact-based views as a presidential candidate about climate policy and Biden’s relationships with China. They said it violated their policies relating… pic.twitter.com/ND2dFVnGAg
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
Two years ago, Big Tech censored people who argued that we shouldn’t close schools for Covid. Now they’re censoring presidential candidates for arguing that fossil fuels are required for prosperity. They didn’t censor me because it’s false. They censored me because it’s true… https://t.co/TYElXRdVLZ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
In addition, he tweeted in response to Kyle Becker, CEO of Becker News, who mentioned that the New York Times had reported on LinkedIn’s agreement to censor posts produced by Chinese citizens for the Chinese government.
Two years ago, Big Tech censored people who argued that we shouldn’t close schools for Covid. Now they’re censoring presidential candidates for arguing that fossil fuels are required for prosperity. They didn’t censor me because it’s false. They censored me because it’s true… https://t.co/TYElXRdVLZ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
Even though Mr. Ramaswamy is plainly not a Chinese citizen, there are concerns that this state-sponsored censorship may extend to posts made by non-citizens as well. According to Mr. Ramaswamy, however, “It’s no riddle why LinkedIn banned me for criticizing China’s influence over Biden and climate change policies. This is incredible!”
LinkedIn claims that Mr. Ramaswamy’s transgressions in a number of videos are the reason for their decision to censor him. According to LinkedIn, one of his remarks was, “The Chinese Communist Party is playing the Biden administration like a Chinese mandolin.” China has weaponized the ‘woke pandemic’ to remain ahead of the United States. And it’s working!” was enough to silence him.
If the climate religion was truly concerned with climate change, they would be concerned about shifting hydrocarbon production from the United States to Russia and China, for example. “However, the climate religion and its apostles within the [environmental, social, and governance] movement have a different goal,” was also problematic for the platform.
Ramaswamy’s assertion that “the climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are necessary for human prosperity” was the third violation.
To regain access to his account, Mr. Ramaswamy was required to agree “to abide by Linkedln’s Terms and not violate them again.” The website advised him.
Ramaswamy, however, adopted a combative stance and posted a video on Twitter in which he asserted, “These are not really the actions of private corporations. These so-called publicly traded entities… perform government duties through the back door.”
To regain access to his account, the Republican presidential candidate pledged to fight and stated that he “will stop at nothing in restoring free speech in our country [and] in restoring internet freedoms in our country.”
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
I saw Ramaswamy while I was covering CPAC back in March. The guy is a definite genius and he questions authority vigorously. This ban is absolutely outrageous. CONTINUE READING…
