LinkedIn rethinks support of China's censorship

LinkedIn is thinking twice about its adoption of China's aggressive censorship. Photo: Reuters

Beijing: After complaints and clear examples of bowing to Chinese censorship diktats, LinkedIn says it may have acted too hastily in friending China's government.

LinkedIn executives said they were reconsidering their policies, after seven months of censoring content from China deemed too sensitive.

"We do want to get this right, and we are strongly considering changing our policy so that content from our Chinese members that is not allowed in China will still be viewed globally," Hani Durzy, a spokesman for the California-based companysaid.

The professional social networking site is the latest to wrestle with the moral quandaries that come with doing business in China amid the government's paranoia about the internet. Facebook, Twitter and Google are largely blocked here.

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LinkedIn, however, thought it could make it work. In February, the company launched its Chinese-language website and set up operations in China. In return, it promised to follow Chinese government rules and started self-censoring content.

But Mr Durzy insisted back then that the company would do so only when "legally required."

Then, in June, came the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The anniversary, a perennial headache for web users in China, is marked by a clampdown on search terms, internet speeds and intense government scrutiny.

LinkedIn users reported posts about Tiananmen being blocked even in Hong Kong, which lies outsides China's censorship firewall. LinkedIn said at the time that it was an accident. And it said that although such content was self-censored in China, it would remain "accessible elsewhere in the world".

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LinkedIn rethinks support of China's censorship