LinkedIn has censored GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for “misinformation” and “hate speech” in seemingly anodyne posts about climate change and the threat of China — as a new internal poll shows him third behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump among Republican primary voters.
The entrepreneur’s account has been blocked for more than a week over three posts deemed offensive by LinkedIn, specifically:
- “The CCP is playing the Biden administration like a Chinese mandolin.”
- “If the climate religion was really about climate change, then they’d be worried about, say, shifting oil production from the U.S. to places like Russia and China.”
- “The climate agenda is a lie: fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity.”
On Thursday morning, Ramaswamy tweeted a screenshot of a Tuesday email from LinkedIn that read: “Your account was restricted for repeatedly sharing content that contains misleading or inaccurate information.”
“Can you please clarify what is misleading in any of these statements made?” asked Ramaswamy, the author of “Woke, Inc.”
A LinkedIn official responded Wednesday by saying, in part: “We don’t tolerate misinformation, hate speech, violence or any form of abuse on our platform. We understand that this might not be the response you wanted, but we work to apply our policies in a fair and consistent way for all of our members.”
A LinkedIn spokesperson added, “The account was restricted in error and it’s now back up,” but did not clarify what the error was.
“If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone,” Ramaswamy told The Post.
“It’s remarkable that expressing fact-based views on climate policy and China-related policy, including legitimate criticism of President Biden, would result in outright censorship by a Microsoft-owned social media company,” he added.
“This is the embodiment of what’s wrong in America: an arranged marriage between large tech companies and the left that together accomplishes what neither could alone,” Ramaswamy went on.
“I was one of the first critics of the government using tech companies to silence speech that the government could not censor directly. It feels like karma that those tech companies are now censoring me for criticizing the government whose hand lurks behind many of their actions.”
Cygnal, which is conducting polling for Ramaswamy’s 2024 campaign, found Trump, 76, in first place among GOP primary voters with 51.5% support.
DeSantis, 44, registered 20.9% support while Ramaswamy has 4.8% support.
Another 4.7% back former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and 4.3% back former Vice President Mike Pence in the Republican nominating contest.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the rest of the declared and expected candidates are polling at less than 2%.
A majority of potential general election voters view both Trump (52.1%) and President Biden (54.6%) unfavorably, according to the poll.
Those figures have changed since the last time Cygnal conducted the poll in April, as more voters in the Northeast and women under 55 are viewing the 80-year-old Biden unfavorably.
Voters are almost evenly split in their view of DeSantis, with 42.3% having a favorable view of the Florida governor and 43.7% having an unfavorable view.
The poll also shows 37.6% of potential voters have a favorable view of insurgent Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign for the presidency, while 30.6% have an unfavorable view and 26.3% have no opinion.
Voters’ top three issues headed into the 2024 campaign are inflation and the economy (31%), illegal immigration (14.3%) and gun control (13.9%), Cygnal also found.
A plurality (48.2%) of Americans — including a majority of independents — do not support a debt ceiling raise without spending cuts amid ongoing negotiations between House Republicans and the White House.
“Americans are concerned about the emergency at our southern border more than the Biden administration,” Cygnal pollster Mitch Brown added.
“Seventy-five percent of Republicans, 50% of Independents, and one-third of Democrats believe Biden should have extended Title 42 to deal with the crisis. With illegal border crossings rising daily, public sentiment will only worsen as the border battleground states of Texas and Arizona work to find solutions.”
Two-thirds of Americans (67%) also believe the country is on the wrong track, while 27% say it is headed in the right direction. Around 5 percent are unsure.
Cygnal surveyed more than 2,500 likely 2024 general election voters for the poll between May 16 and 18, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.92%.
The GOP polling firm has made its predictions with 94% accuracy in nearly 40 surveys, according to FiveThirtyEight.
