We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the millions of pro-Palestinian professionals who have courageously advocated for justice regarding the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Palestine on social media platforms, only to encounter severe censorship by LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft.

Before October 7th, LinkedIn's censorship of Palestinian content was troubling, but since then, it has significantly intensified. Users now experience frequent removal of content, temporary and permanent restrictions, disproportionately affecting minority communities. The extensive censorship targeting this community underscores a systemic issue rooted in racism, discrimination, and Islamophobia.

In contrast, pro-Israeli content and accounts, including those associated with the IDF and Israeli government, freely disseminate misinformation, hate speech, discriminatory remarks, and content inciting violence on the platform. Reports regarding such content are often ignored or dismissed as not violating LinkedIn's policies.

Attempts to enforce "fair policies" are transparently unfair. LinkedIn's policies serve as a pretext for removing content and permanently restricting accounts without providing adequate justification, offering only a link to the User Agreement for users to decipher the alleged violation, which often proves non existent. This process operates within a black box framework with predetermined assumptions of guilt very often aligned to the race and religion of the user.

This pattern of censorship follows after the one-sided support messages shared by Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella and LinkedIn's CEO Ryan Roslansky for Israel on October 7th. These messages failed to acknowledge the 76 years of colonization, occupation, and apartheid or the ongoing Palestinian genocide and starvation policy, which has resulted in the deaths of over 35,000 Palestinians, 70,000+ missing still under the rubble or injured, with 2 million displaced (Euro-Med Monitor). This suggests that the censorship strategy has the implicit endorsement of top management.
 

Linkedin's Key Infringements

• Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
• LinkedIn’s Code of Conduct upholds Microsoft’s Global Human Rights commitment to the ‘United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.’
• As a member of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), LinkedIn aligns with the mission of "Protecting And Advancing Freedom Of Expression And Privacy In The ICT Sector." This means that corporations will adhere to international law, human rights, and freedom of speech and resist government pressure to censor, restrict, or shut down users or free speech. 
• LinkedIn endorses The Santa Clara Principles On Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation, which advocates that 'companies should clearly explain to users why content or account have been taken down, provide an appeal process, whilst remaining independent from government demands or acting as state actors.'

Note: see also Meta’s Broken Promises by Humans Rights Watch for more Info on Social Media Censorship.

How restrictions impact the users:

• This has severely impacted personal and professional reputations, financial positions, ability to seek work, business, and contracts, even loss of job and earnings, especially given LinkedIn's monopoly in the global employment market.
• “Muslims and Arabs already encounter a disproportionate amount of discrimination due to the escalating global trend of Islamophobia, now at "unprecedented levels" CAIR. Such restrictions further marginalise individuals in the workplace, business, and community.

Our Demands:

• LinkedIn: Complies with all international laws, local regulations, industry standards, and the endorsements they advocate.
• LinkedIn invites an independent, qualified body of legal, human rights, technology, social media, and industry experts to comprehensively review its algorithms, systems, policies, processes, and governance that affect how it treats its users, especially those from marginalized communities worldwide.
• LinkedIn: Immediately establishes a transparent and impartial review and adjudication process, allowing permanently restricted users to present their cases, ensuring their right to defend all content-related decisions, if it Executive Board cares about the loss of trust of users in the platform.

Sign and share this petition on all social media platforms to support the cause of justice and equality for Palestinians. Let's make a difference together. #FreePalestine #JusticeForAll #CeasefireNow

Palestine Advocates!