LinkedIn Reviewing China Censorship Policy

LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) expanded into China this year, adopting policies in line with the countrys censorship rules. Now, the worlds largest professional social-networking company is saying it may have gone too far.

When a LinkedIn user in China shares a post deemed to be in conflict with the governments rules, the company blocks the content not only in China but around the world. While LinkedIns goal is to protect members against how their content might be shared and noticed by the government, the practice may end up stifling Chinese users seeking to spread messages outside their country.

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 Mountain View, California-based LinkedIn, said yesterday.

LinkedIns dilemma underscores the difficulty of doing business in a country with stringent censorship rules, where few other U.S. technology companies have succeeded. Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. social-networking services are blocked in China, though Facebook is slowly expanding its advertising business there after signing a lease in central Beijing, people familiar with the matter have said.

Other social-media companies have struggled with certain countries seeking to block content on their sites, and sometimes the entire site. Twitter was blocked earlier this year in Turkey in response to leaks targeting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogans government amid a corruption probe. Twitter has also been blocked at times in North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt. For most countries, Twitters policy is to remove content only in the country where it is illegal.

LinkedIn is notifying people when content thats deemed inappropriate by the Chinese government is blocked. Marketplace journalist Rob Schmitz wrote a story about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprisings and later got an e-mail from the company saying his story would not be seen by LinkedIn members in China, and that content posted from China will be blocked globally to protect the safety of our members that live in China, Schmitz wrote recently.

The Chinese website for LinkedIn was rolled out in February to provide a localized service after more than a decade of having only an English-language site there.

Jeff Weiner, LinkedIns chief executive officer, said in a blog post in the same month that LinkedIn supports freedom of expression and fundamentally disagrees with government censorship.

At the same time, we also believe that LinkedIns absence in China would deny Chinese professionals a means to connect with others on our global platform, thereby limiting the ability of individual Chinese citizens to pursue and realize the economic opportunities, dreams and rights most important to them, Weiner said in the post.

China is now LinkedIns fastest growing major market for new members, the CEO said on a conference call on July 31. While hes hes pleased with the results thus far, there are certainly going to be challenges ahead, Weiner said.

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LinkedIn Reviewing China Censorship Policy