Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said LinkedIn’s “claim that their decision to censor me was an ‘error'” is “laughable” and challenged Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to “publicly condemn LinkedIn’s censorship.”
On Thursday, Ramaswamy announced that Mircosoft-owned LinkedIn had “locked” his account, as it determined he posted “misleading or inaccurate information” on the platform. As Breitbart News reported, the platform took issue with Ramaswamy’s comments from three videos he posted on the site:
“The CCP 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,” he said in the first quote from a video posted on February 5 reads.
The company took issue with another comment from February 16, when he stated, “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 ESG movement have a different objective.”
Finally, the document referenced a third video from May 7 where he asserted, “The climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
Ramaswamy’s team followed up by asking what was false, as he noted on Friday in an emailed press release.
Now @LinkedIn (owned by @Microsoft) is trying to claim their decision to censor me was an “error.” This is laughable. 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…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 26, 2023
“We asked them in writing to point out what was false,” he stated. “The employee doubled down and 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.”
After he posted this information publicly on Thursday, a spokesperson for the company said in a statement to Breitbart News, “The account was restricted in error and it’s now back up.”
Ramaswamy blasted LinkedIn’s response in his release on Friday.
“Calling it an ‘error’ now is completely dishonest. This wasn’t a technical glitch, it was an intentional act of censorship of my views on Biden, China, and climate change,” he said. “Typical Big Tech behavior: trying to cover their tracks after egregious election interference.”
“I challenge Satya Nadalla [sic] to publicly condemn LinkedIn’s censorship, or else this is just the beginning of 2024 election interference,” he added.
When Breitbart News reached out via email for comment from LinkedIn and Microsoft regarding Ramaswamy’s latest remarks, LinkedIn shared the same statement that it did Thursday.
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