Here at Independent Women, we don’t endorse political candidates, but we are champions of free speech. So it’s worth highlighting an unfortunate chapter of Big Tech suppression over political differences. The target is GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who earned our IWF Gentleman of Distinction Award last year (prior to his candidacy).
ZeroHedge correspondent Tyler Durden gives the context:
“LinkedIn, whose founder Reid Hoffman funded a ‘Russian bot’ hoax against GOP candidate Roy Moore & underwrote Trump accuser E. Jean Carrol’s lawsuit, has locked the account of GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for expressing ‘fact-based views as a presidential candidate about climate policy and Biden’s relationships with China.’”
Vivek posted the story on his Twitter account: “Big Tech election interference has begun: @LinkedIn locked my account & censored me this week for posting videos where I expressed fact-based views as a presidential candidate about climate policy and Biden’s relationships with China. They said it violated their policies relating to ‘misinformation, hate speech, and violence.’ Sad but not surprising.”
Vivek included screenshots of a correspondence with Linkedin, which unfortunately included some biased language from Linkedin that included the tech company chastising him for claiming that the “climate agenda is a lie” and “fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
This is true, and Linkedin should do better. The truth is that fossil fuels significantly contribute to human flourishing through fossil fuel-powered technologies like air conditioning and heating system, refrigeration of medicine and food, and water treatment.
As Marlo Lewis Jr. from the Foundation For Economic Education shows, climate-related deaths have dropped sharply in recent years, thanks to human ingenuity.
Legitimate disagreements on issues like climate change are no grounds for LinkedIn to censor Vivek this way.
Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of Linkedin and use it often. I hope they’ll do better going forward.