Vivek Ramaswamy, presidential candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination, reports that he has been censored by the Big Tech platform LinkedIn.
According to Ramaswamy, it wasn’t alleged election disinformation or Covid-19 or the war between Russia and Ukraine that led to the removal of Big Tech censors, but “climate change”.
Big Tech’s election meddling has begun: @LinkedIn blocked my account and censored me this week for posting videos where I expressed fact-based opinions as a presidential candidate on climate policy and Biden’s ties to China. They said it violated their policies regarding… pic.twitter.com/ND2dFVnGAg
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 25, 2023
“Big Tech’s election interference has begun: @LinkedIn blocked my account and censored me this week for posting videos where I expressed fact-based views as a presidential candidate on climate policy and Biden’s relations with China,” Ramaswamy said. “They said I violated its policies related to misinformation, hate speech and violence.” Sad but not surprising.”
Below is a copy of the LinkedIn case that was sent to Ramaswamy.
“Your account was restricted for repeatedly sharing content that contains misleading or inaccurate information, in violation of the User Agreement and LinkedIn Professional Community Policies,” LinkedIn said without providing evidence.
The case contained the following examples of alleged violations. Disturbingly, LinkedIn was shielding another presidential candidate, current President Joe Biden, from criticism over his demonstrated ties to China.
Video shared on Feb 5, 2023 20:49:44 GMT along with comment “The CCP is playing the Biden administration like a Chinese mandolin. China has weaponized the ‘woke pandemic’ to stay one step ahead of in front of us. And it’s working” Video shared on 16 Feb 2023 19:26:10 GMT along with the comment “If climate religion really was about climate change, then they would be concerned with, say, changing the production of US oil to places like Russia and China. However, climate religion and its apostles in the ESG movement have a different goal.” Video shared on May 7, 2023 13:50:36 GMT along with comment “The climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
The Republican candidate’s censored statements show an escalation from comments about the Covid pandemic and election “disinformation” to blatant election interference based on political arguments made by a presidential candidate.
Climate change is a complex issue that is used to justify massive changes in the economy and society. There is a broad scientific basis for arguing about the effects of human activities on the climate, whether or not these activities are “catastrophic”, the adaptations that society can make to adjust to the climate, whether the intervention of the government or market solutions are preferable in specific cases, and the cost/benefit of specific policies.
Censoring a presidential candidate for discussing these issues is absolutely unacceptable and a blatant case of election interference.
Republicans introduced legislation last week that would force the Biden administration to disclose its requests for Big Tech companies to censor content.
The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the legislation, called the Government Censorship Disclosure Act. The bill would require the government to “disclose the extent to which it is trying to urge Big Tech to engage in censorship that violates the First Amendment,” DC reported. The bill would also “require officials and employees of the executive and legislative branches to publicly disclose, within seven days, any communications with technology platforms about actions or potential actions to restrict certain speech.”
“The collusion between the Biden administration and Big Tech that has come to light over the past two years is not only disturbing, but also inconsistent with the constitutional role of government in American life,” Hagerty said.
“The purpose of the First Amendment is to prevent the government from suppressing speech with which it disagrees. If the federal government tries to do away with the Constitution by secretly working with technology platforms to censor the speech of Americans, the the American people deserve to know. Demanding transparency will ensure that the government cannot work in secret to censor Americans,” Hagerty added.
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OPINION: This article contains comments that reflect the opinion of the author.
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