By now the choice of China’s government to tighten restrictions of tech firms operating within its borders, should be well known. The moves have now prompted Microsoft to pull access to LinkedIn from the region.

Added to this is growing pressure and tensions between the two parties, with Microsoft now set to pull LinkedIn from China.

One of the major sticking points was the government forcing tech firms to limit access to services for individuals that it deems unacceptable. Failure to comply with these regulations, would potentially see a tech firm’s platform be blocked entirely, so Microsoft has decided to preemptively pull the service.

“We recognized that operating a localized version of LinkedIn in China would mean adherence to requirements of the Chinese government on Internet platforms,” explains Mohak Shroff, SVP of Engineering at LinkedIn in a blog post.

“While we strongly support freedom of expression, we took this approach in order to create value for our members in China and around the world. We also established a clear set of guidelines to follow should we ever need to re-evaluate our localized version of LinkedIn in China,” he adds.

While it is planning to remove LinkedIn, Microsoft still wants to assist professionals in the region when it comes to accessing opportunities for employment, networking with other business people.

To that end, it wants to launch InJobs as China-specific portal.

“Our new strategy for China is to put our focus on helping China-based professionals find jobs in China and Chinese companies find quality candidates. Later this year, we will launch InJobs, a new, standalone jobs application for China,” adds Shroff.

“InJobs will not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles. We will also continue to work with Chinese businesses to help them create economic opportunity,” he concludes.

With pressure likely not relenting from the Chinese government, it remains to be seen if other firms will take the measures that Microsoft is preparing to.

[Image – Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash]