LinkedIn backtracks on censorship of Chinese activist

Another question mark over the influence of repressive regimes on tech firms

LinkedIn has backtracked on an apparent decision to censor the profile page of a US-based Chinese activist in China.

Fengsuo Zhou was a leader of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 which were crushed after a bloody crackdown by the Chinese government. Since that time China has sought to eradicate the incident from public consciousness, arresting activists and censoring any mention of the incident in the media. And its reach apparently extends well beyond its borders.

Now based in New York, Zhou is a campaigner for political prisoners in China. On 3rd January he tweeted that his LinkedIn Account had been blocked in China, with would-be readers asked to verify their phone numbers before continuing.

"My LinkedIn account was blocked by LinkedIn in China, a day after my other social account was blocked in China. This is how censorship spread from Communist China to Silicon Valley in the age of globalization and digitalization. How does LinkedIn get the order from Beijing?"

LinkedIn was initially unresponsive to his request for an explanation. However, the company later reversed its decision, no doubt in view of the story being picked up by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, and reinstated Zhou's profile page in China saying it was "blocked in error".

Zhou welcomed the reversal. "LinkedIn just apologized and reversed the decision which was deemed an error. I applaud the prompt and correct response by LinkedIn. I hope other companies would do the right job and avoid such error in the future," he said in a follow-up tweet.

Like Google, which recently canned secret plans for a censored search engine, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is sensitive to the bad PR generated by its cooperation with China's authoritarian regime. The company entered China in 2014, agreeing to demands to block content according to local regulations. This practice continued after the social network's acquisition by Microsoft in 2016.

LinkedIn's initial message to Zhou (see below) contains the now-familiar litany of platitudes that social media firms routinely trot out when confronted with evidence of the ways regimes track, control and manipulate users on their platforms.

"We believe that people everywhere can benefit from Chinese individuals connecting with each other and LinkedIn members in other parts of the world," it said.

"We strongly support freedom of expression," the firm added, before stating that compromises had to be made in order to operate in China.

Zhou was critical of this stance, noting the double standards of US tech companies that are apparently happy to compromise their stated ideals in order to do business with repressive regimes, and accusing LinkedIn of taking orders from Beijing.

"I feel anger and outrage," he said, prior to his post being restored. "It's just not something you would expect from Silicon Valley, where they always profess their love for liberties and, in particular, expression."

While he had posted some Tiananmen related content to LinkedIn, Zhou believes that his profile was blocked in China, not because of anything he posted on the site but rather because of the government tracking his activities on Tencent's WeChat, where he recently posted photos of a Lantos Foundation gala event at which the Hong Kong pro-democratic activist Joshua Wong was honoured. WeChat is closely monitored by the Chinese government, and this post was also blocked in China.