Microsoft’s LinkedIn says : “Don’t say Tiananmen Square. China doesn’t like it.”

It has been reported that, if you include the phrase “Tiananmen Square” to your LinkedIn profile… you will get censored in China (by LinkedIn and their parent company, Microsoft)… and get sent an email encouraging you to remove the phrase.

Check out this Tweet from Kevin Beaumont, who initially reported this:

A key portion from that email sent by Microsoft / LinkedIn:

“due to the presence of prohibited content” … “your profile and your public activity, such as your comments and items you share with your network, will not be made viewable in China“

The email goes on to encourage the LinkedIn user to remove the reference to “Tiananmen Square” in order to be viewable in China.

“We will work with you to minimize the impact and can review your profile’s accessibility within China if you update the Skills & endorsements section of your profile.”

A USA based computer company is censoring everyone (from any country) if they say “Tiananmen Square”.

Because China doesn’t like it when people say “Tiananmen Square”.

When China says “jump”, Microsoft says “how high?”.

Now, to be fair, while this report has a good amount of supporting evidence — and this action by Microsoft seems somewhat expected — this needs to be confirmed.

With that in mind I have added the phrase “Tiananmen Square” to my LInkedIn profile in multiple places (including in my bio and my skills). What exactly a “Tiananmen Square” skill would be, who knows. But I’m curious to see if that results in me receiving a similar notification from Microsoft.