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LinkedIn logo: Profiles of dozens of members had already been blocked in the summer
Photo: Eric Risberg / AP
The special LinkedIn version for the Chinese market will be closed - and with it the last western social network in the country.
The parent company Microsoft announced the move on Thursday in a blog post that "in the course of the year" the branch of the business contacts network is to be replaced by "InJobs".
The new platform will "contain no social feed and no possibility to share posts or articles."
LinkedIn has existed in China since February 2014, i.e. before it was taken over by Microsoft.
The network in the country has always been subject to Chinese Internet censorship, even if it always supports freedom of expression and speech, as it is called by LinkedIn.
Now, however, Microsoft comes to the conclusion that although it has succeeded in creating new jobs for the members, it has not strengthened the social aspects of the network: "Share and stay informed".
In addition, they are faced with "a considerably more difficult operational environment and larger compliance regulations".
According to the "Protocol", this reason is not included in the Chinese version of the announcement.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government issued a 30-day ultimatum to Microsoft in March to control the content on LinkedIn more closely.
According to the newspaper, profiles of dozens of members from the United States, Europe, Israel and Japan were blocked in China's LinkedIn version in the summer.
Those affected were not informed of the exact reasons.
Facebook and Twitter do not operate in China at all, Google switched to Hong Kong in 2010.
Microsoft still operates a censored version of its search engine Bing in China and offers a special version of Windows 10.
The code-sharing platform GitHub, which belongs to Microsoft, is also still accessible in China.
But the government and large companies are relying on their own platform for open source code called Gitee and are trying to displace GitHub with it.
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