Linked.Out.

“For make no mistake:?Evil does exist in the world…” (Barack Obama, Oslo 2009). Evil has come to Ukraine. Russian military – “the manifestation of evil on earth” (Volodymyr Zelenskyy, April 3, 2022). Bucha. “No denial or disinformation from the Kremlin can hide what we all know to be the truth" (Boris Johnson).

“Truth is reasonable for mankind" [“Die Wahrheit ist dem Menschen zumutbar”], the Austrian poet and author Ingeborg Bachmann expressed after WWII, i.e. we have a duty to face the truth. Therefore, freedom of speech is important. But not on LinkedIn?

Freedom of speech ?

Since the war in Europe has begun, LinkedIn is not primarily used for professional networking and career development any more. For example, Andreas Ronken, CEO at the German company Ritter Sport in my Swabian Homeland, has declared that Ritter Sport has decided “to stop investing in the Russian market, to stop advertising there and to donate the profits from Russian business activities". Boris Johnson predicts that Putin will never break the spirit of Ukraine’s people or conquer their homeland. Ivan Mishchenko, Judge at the Supreme Court in the Ukraine and now a warrior, informs about a fundraising campaign (Dead Lawyers Society). And the German IP Attorney Peter Ruess criticizes the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk. That is freedom of speech.

The right to freedom of expression has been recognized as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The right is enshrined in article 11?of the Charter Fundamental Rights of the European Union and, of course, in the Fundamental Law of democratic states. Different from the United States (see Trump v. Twitter, District Court, N.D. California, 21-cv-08378-JD) inter alia in Germany a so called “horizontal effect” of this individual fundamental right has been recognized: the right to freedom of expression applies also in relations between users and providers of social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (see German Federal Court of Justice, Judgment of July 29, 2021 in case III ZR 179/20; c.f. TRIBUNALE ORDINARIO DI BOLOGNA SECONDA SEZIONE CIVILE, N. R.G. 5206 / 2020 DE GAETANO VINCENZO v. FACEBOOK IRELAND LIMITED: "evidenti diritti fondamentali della persona, di manifesta rilevanza costituzionale").

Is truth not bearable on LinkedIn?

It seems that LinkedIn has misunderstood the meaning of freedom of expression and how important the fundamental right is, especially in times of war, to counter Russian propaganda warfare. “Many users from Ukraine faced the fact that their posts and accounts were subject to restrictions related to the publication of content and at the same time, the parent company, Microsoft, supported the sanctions regime introduced by the US government.” (Ihor Nikolenko).

"LinkedIn has deleted posts of Russia's crimes in Bucha, without any notice", Halyna Divakova reports. "LinkedIn has no problem with posts of Russian sharing their Z but LinkedIn deletes posts with images of Bucha massacre, of what russians did” Oksana Zabolotna wrote. And there are many other examples of deleted posts and unjustified bans, see Dmytro Nechytailo, PwC; Evgen Kulikov, UkrSibbank BNP Paribas; Taras Dumych, Wolf Theiss; Iryna Kravtsova, General Counsel and Kateryna Martynenko who was just blocked by LinkedIn… after her post with photos of victims from the #buchamassacre.

Content moderation out of control

“Content moderation is out of control”, German attorney Peter Hense just wrote on LinkedIn. Indeed. Obviously, courts have to explain to LinkedIn the right to freedom of expression, as judges already did in proceedings in Germany against Twitter (Regional Court of Dortmund, Judgment of February 25, 2022, 17 O 7/21) and Facebook (Higher Regional Court of Celle, judgment of January 20, 2022, 13 U 84/19).

Picture above: Agnieszka Widera. Stickers and printed cups "I NEED AMMUNITION NOT A RIDE" in support of people fleeing Ukraine can be purchased here.