LinkedIn announces the closure of its portal in China due to government censorship

The professional-oriented social network LinkedIn announced the upcoming closure of its portal in China, due to “operational difficulties and requirements” imposed by the Government of the Chinese Communist Party, in direct allusion to censorship.

LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, was until now the only large Western social network that continued to operate in the Asian giant, where Facebook (which owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger) and Twitter have been banned since 2009, and where Google left in the 2010 also due to government censorship.

“We are facing a significantly more difficult operating environment and higher compliance requirements in China,” they said from the social network for the corporate world on their corporate blog.

Last March, the Chinese communist government gave the platform 30 days of margin to increase the regulation of its content, as reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, which was followed by several notifications by the social network to users whose profiles became blocked.

These users include human rights activists, academics and journalists who shared content prohibited by the Communist Party.

LinkedIn launched a “localized” version of its platform in China in 2014 that already adhered to government censorship in that country, but the tightening of requirements in recent months has made those responsible for the network change their minds Social.

“Although we have achieved success in helping Chinese users to find work and economic opportunities, we have not achieved the same success in the more social aspects of sharing content and being informed,” they lamented from the application owned by Microsoft.

Although no specific date was given for the closure of LinkedIn in China, it was specified that this will be before the end of the year.