LinkedIn reverses course after censoring Chinese profile page of US-based human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo
- Zhou, a student leader during the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, says he thinks media attention led to the change
- LinkedIn had agreed to abide by Chinese government requirements on expression when it was given access in 2014
LinkedIn has restored access to the profile page of a prominent Chinese human rights activist, a day after the career networking site told him his page in China had been censored in accordance with the company’s commitment to adhering to the “requirements of the Chinese government”.
LinkedIn informed New York-based activist Zhou Fengsuo on Wednesday evening that because of “specific content” in his profile his page could no longer be viewed by users in China, according to correspondence that Zhou posted to Twitter.
“While we strongly support freedom of expression, we recognised when we launched that we would need to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government to operate in China,” LinkedIn’s message to Zhou said.
As part of its launch in China in early 2014, LinkedIn, which was bought by Microsoft in 2016, agreed to demands from Chinese authorities to block access to accounts deemed to be in violation of local laws regulating content.
The agreement was roundly criticised by the human rights community, and there have been notable spikes in censorship around the annual anniversaries of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on protesters calling for democratic reform.
