According to Just the News, Republican primary candidate and business owner Vivek Ramaswamy, 37, claims that LinkedIn blocked his account after he posted political videos there in which he criticized President Joe Biden’s relations with China and shared his opinions 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 prohibition is consistent with the broader issue of Big Tech censorship. In his post, he said that “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.”
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
Additionally, he tweeted in response to Kyle Becker, CEO of Becker News, who pointed out that the New York Times had reported on LinkedIn’s agreement to censor posts for the Chinese government if they were produced by Chinese citizens.
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
Despite the fact that Mr. Ramaswamy is obviously not a Chinese citizen, there are worries that this state-sponsored censorship may extend beyond only posts made by citizens. But according to Mr. Ramaswamy, “It’s no mystery why LinkedIn censored me for criticizing China’s influence over Biden & climate change policies. This is staggering.”
Comments Mr. Ramaswamy made in a number of videos are the transgressions that LinkedIn claims are the cause for their decision to censor him. LinkedIn claims that one of his comments, “The [Chinese Communist Party] 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.” were sufficient to silence him.
Ramaswamy’s statement that “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 [environmental, social and governance] movement have a different objective,” was also problematic for the platform.
A third transgression was Ramaswamy’s statement that “the climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
In order to regain access to his account, Mr. Ramaswamy had to agree “to abide by Linkedln’s Terms and not to violate them again.” the site informed him.
However, Ramaswamy adopted a combative attitude and posted a video on Twitter in which he asserted, “These aren’t really the actions of private companies. These are so-called publicly held companies … that are doing the work of the government through the backdoor.”
In order to regain access to his account, the Republican presidential candidate vowed to fight and said he “will stop at nothing in restoring free speech in our country [and] in restoring internet freedoms in our country.”
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.
Earlier this month we reported that a list has been compiled of those involved in the Censorship-Industrial Complex. Financial outlet Zero-Hedge posted the list on its site. The site claims that Facebook actually BANNED that article, which is most likely proof that it’s actually real.
Here are the top organizations in the Censorship-Industrial Complex as mentioned by the outlet:
1. Information Futures Lab (IFL) at Brown University (formerly, First Draft):
Link: https://sites.brown.edu/informationfutures/ / https://First Draftnews.org/
Type: A university institute, housed within the School of Public Health, to combat “misinformation” and “outdated communications practices.” The successor to First Draft, one of the earliest and more prominent “anti-disinformation” outfits.
2. Meedan
Link: https://meedan.com/
Type: Medium-sized non-profit specializing in technology and countering “disinformation.”
You may have read about them when: Meedan ran a range of Covid-19 misinformation initiatives “to support pandemic fact-checking efforts” with funding from BigTech, the Omidyar Foundation, the National Science Foundation and more.
3. Harvard Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (Technology and Social Change Project)
Link: https://shorensteincenter.org/programs/technology-social-change/
Type: An elite academic project once regarded as one of the leading centers in the “anti-disinformation” field.
You may have read about them when: It was announced that the center would be closed in 2024 on the spurious grounds that project lead Joan Donovan lacked sufficient academic credentials to run the initiative (what was spurious is that it took that long for this realization to come about).
4. The Public Good Projects
Link: https://www.publicgoodprojects.org/
Type: Non-profit consultancy, specializing in health communications, marketing, technology and “disinformation.”
You may have read about them when: Whilst PGP seem to do some front-facing work, they are also guns for hire for a large range of corporate and government programs. Twitter files show PGP had contracts with biotech lobby group BIO (whose members include Pfizer and Moderna) to run the Stronger campaign, which according to Lee Fang “worked w/Twitter to set content moderation rules around covid ‘misinformation.’”
5. Graphika
Link: https://www.graphika.com/
Type: For-profit firm with defense connections specializing in “digital marketing and disinformation & analysis.”
You may have read about them when: Graphika was one of two outside groups hired in 2017 by the Senate Intelligence Committee to assess the Russian cyber menace. Graphika was also a “core four” partner to Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership and its Virality Project, both subjects of #TwitterFiles reports. Made headlines for claiming a leak of US-UK trade discussions, publicized by Jeremy Corbyn, was part of an operation called “secondary Infektion” traceable to Russia.
