Posts Tagged ‘Zhou Fengsuo’

LinkedIn reverses censorship position re Zhou Fengsuo’s profile

January 7, 2019

Zhou Fengsuo –  Getty Images

Megha Rajagopala a BuzzFeed News Reporter, posted on 4 January 2019 the very interesting story of how LinkedIn censored, and then quickly restored, the profile of a New York–based Chinese human rights defender on its Chinese platform after a wave of negative publicity. Zhou Fengsuo is best known as one of the student leaders of the pro-democracy protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. He was forced into exile in the United States over his role in the student movement, which landed him on a most-wanted list in China.

On 3 January, LinkedIn sent Zhou a message saying his profile and activities would not be viewable to users in China because of “specific content on your profile” (without saying which content!). Hours later, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn reversed its decision, apparently after South China Morning Post reporter Owen Churchill brought attention to the case. See the exchange below:

“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?

………

Jan 4

Update, 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. Thanks to for the quick follow up”

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