LinkedIn exits from China because of a ‘challenging operating environment’

For China’s internet regulators, even a censored US-based social network was too much.

Microsoft ​said on Oct 14 that it would cease operating its work-oriented social network LinkedIn within China by the end of the year because of “significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.”

The announcement is a symbolic moment for US-China tech relations, and for China’s new hard-line approach to regulating its tech industry. Microsoft’s withdrawal is the most high-profile departure since Google left the country in 2010 in protest over censorship and alleged espionage.

Microsoft’s censorship has been well documented. Earlier this year, a number of academics and journalists saw their LinkedIn accounts censored. Bing, another Microsoft product, stoked censorship concerns with its image search results for “tank man” on this year’s 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. The company even censored its own farewell message. LinkedIn’s English language statement claimed the company “strongly [supports] freedom of expression,” but the phrase was conspicuously absent from the company’s Chinese language statement.