Monthly Archives: February 2014

[DEFCON 19] Dust: Your Feed RSS Belongs To You! Avoid Censorship!
Dust: Your Feed RSS Belongs To You! Avoid Censorship! Speakers: Chema Alonso Juan Garrido "Silverhack" Law around the world is trying to control what is publ...

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[DEFCON 19] Dust: Your Feed RSS Belongs To You! Avoid Censorship! - Video

After exploring the market for years, LinkedIn is formally entering China with a new beta site that will adhere to the nations strict rules on online censorship.

The new Chinese language site, called Lingying, launched on Monday and hopes to tap over 140 million professionals living in the country, LinkedIn said in a company blog post.

The professional social networking site has been eyeing the Chinese market, where it already has four million members. But until Monday LinkedIn had largely been an English-language site to users in the country.

By launching the site, the company has also agreed to follow Chinas controversial regulations on censorship. Those rules generally require local sites to filter out politically sensitive content, either by deleting user posts, curtailing certain searches or shutting down user accounts.

On Monday, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner wrote in a blog post that the company supports free speech and disagrees with government censorship. But after discussing the matter with experts, including business leaders and global human rights groups, LinkedIn decided more could be in gained in helping Chinese users connect to new economic opportunities.

Extending our service in China raises difficult questions, but it is clear to us that the decision to proceed is the right one, Weiner wrote.

The Chinese site plans to only censor content when required, and LinkedIn said it will be transparent about its practices in China. Extensive measures will also be taken to protect company users data, Weiner added.

Its unclear if abiding to Chinas online censorship will affect LinkedIns English-language website. In February 2011, LinkedIn was briefly blocked in China at a time when local authorities were clamping down on mentions of a pro-democratic movement called the Jasmine Revolution.

LinkedIn is just the latest U.S. Internet company to try to enter China, a market foreign firms have often struggled to compete in. Google and Yahoo once had major ambitions to expand in the country, but have clashed with Chinas demands on content control.

In the case of Yahoo, the company found itself in controversy over the jailing of a Chinese journalist. In 2004, the journalist was arrested after Yahoo provided Chinese authorities with his email records that detailed the governments attempts to restrict local media.

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LinkedIn opens Chinese-language site, agrees to rules on censorship

LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) is introducing a Chinese-language website that will restrict some content to adhere to state censorship rules, expanding in a country where U.S. technology companies have clashed with the government.

The Mountain View, California-based professional social-networking company is offering a new version to provide a more localized service after more than a decade of having an English-language site there, Derek Shen, LinkedIns China president, said in a blog post yesterday. LinkedIn is also creating a joint venture with Sequoia China and China Broadband Capital to connect more than 140 million Chinese professionals, he wrote. LinkedIn said it has more than four million members in China, which is one of the companys fastest-growing user bases.

The new website puts LinkedIn deeper into a country where social-media peers such as Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. are blocked after they balked at government censorship rules. Facebook hasnt built up operations in China beyond hiring contractors to help advertisers reach people outside of the country, spokeswoman Debbie Frost has said. Google ran afoul of Chinese authorities in 2010 for refusing to abide by local censorship requirements, leading to the company shutting its unfiltered search tools there and redirecting users to pages in Hong Kong.

The LinkedIn Corp. homepage and logo are displayed on laptop computers arranged for a... Read More

The LinkedIn Corp. homepage and logo are displayed on laptop computers arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C. Close

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The LinkedIn Corp. homepage and logo are displayed on laptop computers arranged for a photograph in Washington, D.C.

The shares of LinkedIn rose 5.1 percent to $209.84 at the close in New York, leaving them up 31 percent in the past 12 months, compared with a 22 percent climb in the Standard & Poors 500 index.

LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Jeff Weiner vowed to be transparent about how the company conducts business in China and said he will undertake extensive measures to protect member data.

LinkedIn strongly supports freedom of expression and fundamentally disagrees with government censorship, Weiner said in a LinkedIn post. At the same time, we also believe that LinkedIns absence in China would deny Chinese professionals a means to connect with others on our global platform, thereby limiting the ability of individual Chinese citizens to pursue and realize the economic opportunities, dreams and rights most important to them.

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LinkedIn Expands in China With Local Website

(02-25 14:08)

Business networking site LinkedIn has launched a Chinese version and admitted consenting to censorship conditions. Foreign tech giants are required to abide by strict rules to operate in the country, and unlike the English-language version of LinkedIn, the new site does not currently allow group discussions. LinkedIn pledged to be limited and open about its compliance. As a condition for operating in the country, the government of China imposes censorship requirements on internet platforms,'' it said in an online statement posted Sunday. It promised that government restrictions on content will be implemented only when and to the extent required'' and that it will be transparent about how it conducts business in China. LinkedIn strongly supports freedom of expression and fundamentally disagrees with government censorship. At the same time, we also believe that LinkedIn's absence in China would deny Chinese professionals a means to connect with others on our global platform,'' it said. The company said it was targeting more than 140 million Chinese users nearly half its existing 277 million global members. Its English-language version has been available in China for more than a decade, where it has attracted four million users, it said. --AFP

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LinkedIn Chinese version bends to censorship rules