Has Linkedin been high handed in deleting Dr Aniruddha Malpani's account?

My dear friend Dr Aniruddha Malpani, and an investor cum shareholder in my firm Solidarity Advisors, was permanently “kicked” out of Linkedin because he repeatedly wrote against the business practices of Byju’s which Linkedin considered defamatory.

I have personally confirmed with Dr Malpani that Linkedin has forwarded no formal complaint by Byju’s to Dr Malpani. On the contrary, a senior person from Byju’s acknowledged on Linkedin (as a reply to his posts) that Byju’s needed to improve its standards on a bunch of things. 

Dr Malpani has 180000 followers on Linkedin. He has contributed immensely to the start-up ecosystem in India with no axe to grind. He genuinely wants to use his wealth to make the world a better place and invest in companies where purpose is not compromised in the pursuit of profits.  While, for sure, Dr Malpani could be more careful in his choice of words when critiquing a company, Linkedin’s actions seem to be biased at present towards a company with whom its commercial interests are more closely aligned.

In a world where discourse is increasingly short of decency, a good man, who was trying to do the right thing, has been “silenced” by the power of a Big technology company that owes no explanations for its actions. 

Dr Malpani invests his personal capital through Malpani Ventures, his family firm. He does not seek third party capital. So, Linkedin blocking him does not impact him commercially. However, imagine the signal of intimidation it sends to the 180000 followers of Dr Malpani and could make them hesitant to stand up and speak out. 

Many years ago the philosopher Edmund Burke wrote that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. Social media companies like Linkedin have significant power, and they need to use it responsibly and not be arbiters of truth. 

Its important that we speak out and voice our objection against such high handedness.  We could be next in line.