LinkedIn unplugs from Chinese censorship

Microsoft is shutting down its LinkedIn service in China later this year after censorship rules were tightened by Beijing.

The company said in a blog post Thursday it has faced “a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China”.

LinkedIn will replace its localised platform in China with a new app called InJobs that has some of LinkedIn’s career-networking features but “will not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles”.

China’s internet watchdog in May said it had found LinkedIn as well as Microsoft’s Bing search engine and about 100 other apps were engaged in improper collection and use of data and ordered them to fix the problem.

In 2014, LinkedIn launched a site in simplified Chinese, the written characters used on the mainland, to expand its reach in the country.

It said at the time that expanding in China raises “difficult questions” because it will be required to censor content, but that it would be clear about how it conducts business in China and undertake “extensive measures” to protect members’ rights and data.

Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016.

AP