ON THE OUTS WITH LINKEDIN
OKLAHOMA CITY – In the weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of private individuals whose differing views on everything from climate change to COVID-19 – expressed on Big Tech social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter – have been either censored or outright banned.
One such case is that of Denver-based energy industry consultant and social media inf luencer David Ramsden-Wood, known to his fans as “DRW.” His blunt and sometimes controversial opinions and views recently came to the attention of certain “higher-ups” at LinkedIn, and his account was terminated, with no recourse.
The same week Ramsden-Wood’s account was unceremoniously shuttered, the English version of the Hungarian government’s Twitter account, @AboutHungary, was shut down on Sept. 30. It was later reinstated, with Twitter offering no real explanation for the suspension, which came with no warning.
Zoltán Kovács, spokesman for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said of the Twitter account suspension, “It seems that the beautiful new world has finally arrived, in which tech giants are silencing those who hold different opinions. We have taken the necessary steps and are awaiting an official explanation from Twitter.”
Others, ironically in the midst of the annual “Banned Books Week” here in the United States, Facebook was reportedly censoring what they considered “misinformation” related to topics around COVID-19, like physicians administering hydroxychloroquine to help coronavirus patients or physicians noting how patients that had died of COVID-19 had, in fact, died of other causes. Sharing alternative viewpoints on hot-button topics is becoming tricky in our tech-savvy world.
Ramsden-Wood is quite familiar with Oklahoma and the state’s strong ties to the oil and gas industry, analyzing the recent merger between Devon Energy and WBX. He is well known in energy circles in the state.
He was in Oklahoma City last February and spoke to the Natural Gas & Energy Association at a luncheon they sponsored. Later, in August, Ramsden-Wood spoke about his book, What the F@&k Is Wrong With Everybody Else? What They Didn’t Teach You in Business School, at the Tri-State Oil & Gas Convention in Woodward.
Raised in Calgary, Alberta in Canada, Ramsden-Wood now runs his business and Hot Take Of The Day blog in Denver, where he lives.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March, Ramsden-Wood – who is keenly involved with researching and referencing data, just as he does for the oil and gas industry – wrote four different posts related to COVID, all of which eventually raised the ire of LinkedIn. This eventually led to his account being shuttered indefinitely.
Ramsden-Wood explained that LinkedIn “cited four offending posts” that were flagged due to being considered “false content”.
He said he was flabbergasted by this and how he was not offered a way to remedy the situation and return to his account, which had garnered thousands of followers since he launched it several years ago.
“No email. No explanation. No anything,” he said in a phone interview.
On his blog, he shares the back-and-forth he has with a LinkedIn Trust and Safety representative who gives his name only as “Daniel.”
When Ramsden-Wood shows multiple examples of how he had not violated any of their stated policies, Daniel doesn’t budge, even after an alleged review, noting a section of their website which reminds users of that platform: “...You may not use the services to share false content or information, including news stories, that presents untrue facts or events as though they are true or likely true.”
Daniel proceeds to tell Ramsden-Wood that if he wants to take it higher, to contact LinkedIn’s legal department in Sunnyvale, California “via certified mail, or express courier at our corporate headquarters.”
Ramsden-Wood responds, writing that “every thread you picked up, I supported with data, citations and sent it to you. The coronavirus is ‘novel’ – show me the expert that researched my claims and said they were false? It’s new. By definition very little is ‘false’.
“What algorithm and research was used to identify ‘the false information’ – can you send me the data that shows my claims are false? You must have it.
“You are discriminating against me on the basis of political affiliation and not providing me with a policy I violated so you are leaning on ‘false data’ which is 100% incorrect.
“You don’t operate in a bubble. You have a boss and I will hire a lawyer and escalate this, at which point much higher people up in the company will most certainly get involved.”
And this is where the communication between Ramsden-Wood and Daniel concluded.
INFORMATION... WITH A SCOOP OF HUMOR
From the posts this reporter has seen by Ramsden-Wood over the past six months, a keen sense of humor has played a key role when presenting sobering information. It is part of his distinctive way of getting attention paid to information that is sometimes presented in the media one way but interpreted by Ramsden-Wood another way. Like the way the Diamond Princess cruise ship was a “Petri dish” environment for the virus and that if the dangers were as bad as they claimed, far more would have gotten sick, and more would have died. This, LinkedIn did not like.
One post that was cited was of an opinion piece published by The Hill, a reputable news source covering Washington politics and beyond. The piece Ramsden-Wood referenced was headlined “The data is in - Stop the panic and end the total isolation,” written by Dr. Scott Atlas, a medical professional who is now a special adviser on the coronavirus pandemic and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
In the opinion piece, published on April 22, Atlas writes that “(t)he overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.” Fast-forward to this past Friday, following President Donald J. Trump’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis, Atlas told Fox News that he fully anticipates Trump to have a “complete and full and rapid recovery back to normal” and that “the overwhelming majority of people, even at his age, do fine with this.”
Ramsden-Wood had posted videos on his LinkedIn page where he wore a pair of women’s panties on his head, driving home the point that the undergarment was as effective at preventing coronavirus exposure as the flimsy masks the government is endorsing.
“I am acknowledging they’re not working,” he said of the masks.
Other posts of Ramsden-Wood that faced the ire of LinkedIn’s Trust and Safety team was about Bartolo Colon, the 285-pound Texas Rangers pitcher who is of a certain body type more susceptible to the virus.
“Not a single baseball player has died from coronavirus,” said Ramsden-Wood, adding, “(N)o baseball players have died or been hospitalized and all get tested all the time ... so both from a population sample of people who are healthy and have the average body type ... there are projections that can be done.”
The most recent post that got the Hot Take blogger in hot water was a post that featured, word for word, what the CDC said on their own official website.
“I thought they couldn’t be serious in banning me. They said I was still banned. I appealed...”
The oil and gas consultant continued, saying he was “currently banned with no mechanism for appeal.”
Ramsden-Wood said he believes he found Daniel on Twitter, tweeting at him and his LinkedIn boss, reminding them of freedom of speech.
“It just seems crazy. I have not violated policy.”
Ramsden-Wood continued: “Someone seems to have a narrative. No data. It’s more about ‘how I feel.’”
“You may not agree with me ... (but) I always put the data in there,” he said. “It’s to stimulate thought.”
Houston-based geologist Marilyn Wisler followed Ramsden-Wood and was shocked when she learned of his banishment from LinkedIn. On her LinkedIn page, Wisler wrote, in part: “It is okay to disagree with others. ‘Cancelling’ them or showing them disrespect for thinking differently than you gets us nowhere. I’m disappointed in LinkedIn for censoring his content on what I thought was a genuinely collaborative platform. What do you think of this situation?” All commenters on Wisler’s post were outraged by the censorship, with one commenter writing, “Completely unacceptable censorship (by) LinkedIn and a dismal review by their higher ups when he provided information to refute their claims of violating site rules. Unacceptable.”
In a statement to Southwest Ledger, Wisler wrote: “The censorship over David Ramsden-Wood’s COVID posts is concerning to me. It seems as though his use of CDC data and interpretation of it did not fit LinkedIn’s fear-mongering narrative of the pandemic. Ramsden-Wood’s opinions are not politically correct which is why he accumulated over 15,000 LinkedIn followers. People enjoy hearing a realistic viewpoint.”
And Ramsden-Wood is not alone. Shortly after our interview, Ramsden-Wood forwarded me a social media post from Gregory Wrightstone, an author and lecturer based in Pennsylvania who has written much about climate change and is a self-described “climate truth-seeker.”
Wrightstone wrote: “The political weaponization of LinkedIn has begun. My post concerning the population of polar bears has been removed after nearly 13,000 views. This is the first time I have seen anything like this. It was fully sourced and referenced and showed increasing numbers of the creatures.”
On this particular post, LinkedIn had posted that only Wrightstone could see the post because it goes “against our community Professional Community Policies.”
Reading those policies, one eventually comes across this segment: Do not share false or misleading content: Do not share content in a way that you know is, or think may be, misleading or inaccurate, including misinformation or disinformation. Do not share content to interfere with or improperly influence an election or another civic process. We may prevent you from posting content from sites that are known to produce or contain misinformation. Do not share content that directly contradicts guidance from leading global health organizations and public health authorities. Do not post content that denies a well-documented historical event such as the Holocaust or slavery. Do not share false content or information, including news stories, that present untrue facts or events as though they are true or likely true. Do not post “deep-fake” images or videos of others or otherwise post content that has been manipulated to deceive. Do not share content or endorse someone or something in exchange for personal benefit (including personal or family relationships, monetary payment, free products or services, or other value), unless you have included a clear and conspicuous notice of the personal benefit you receive and have otherwise complied with our Advertising Policies.
Southwest Ledger reached out to LinkedIn via email, seeking further clarification on their policies and Ramsden-Wood’s banishment from the platform.
LinkedIn’s Corporate Communications spokesperson, Leonna Spilman, replied, via email that “(w)e don’t comment on specific member actions, but we have clear and consistent Terms of Service and Professional Community Policies that we expect all of our members to adhere to.”
Spilman added, “We’re constantly working to ensure every LinkedIn member has a safe, trusted, and professional experience on our platform.”
Meanwhile, Ramsden-Wood continues getting his message out via his Hot Take Of The Day blog and is already communicating with a law firm in the Denver area that may take it to the next level.
He recognizes that over-eager censors endanger the free flow of ideas and information. As he stated in an email to this reporter, “The story is way bigger than me.”
The plight of folks like Ramsden-Wood is not going unnoticed. In mid-September, the Media Research Center launched a website called CensorTrack, which is “designed to fight online censorship of conservatives.
The founder of CensorTrack, Brent Bozell, said, “Our position is that if they can (censor) the president of the United States, they can do it to anyone, and in fact that is exactly what is happening. Every platform in Silicon Valley today is censoring conservatives.”
And while conservatives (and Ramsden-Wood does not overtly identify as “conservative”) may currently be targeted, other people with other political and philosophical viewpoints have been censored or banned. The distinction is that what these examples are not incidents of “hate speech” or “racism” or “bigotry” or “denial” of any kind. It is coming to conclusions differing from the mainstream, accepted view of a particular topic and then being slammed and banned for not parroting that same mainstream and accepted position.