LinkedIn Is Banning and Alienating Users For No Apparent Reason
I wish I was being hyperbolic with the title, but it’s a factual description — not click bait.
LinkedIn has crossed the line — it’s not merely disrespectful of users, but downright antagonistic. Not merely apathetic towards them, but down-right disdainful.
This is the only conclusion that I can come to after my recent experience with the platform, and discovering that large swathes of users are finding themselves in the exact same situation.
If you use LinkedIn, be prepared: One day you will randomly wake up to find that you’ve been banned, and no reason or explanation has been given.
Your account will initially be “temporarily restricted” and you will receive a warning message that your account may have been accessed without your consent.
Well, that’s surely helpful! Thank you for catching that suspicious activity, LinkedIn. That sounds totally reasonable. I’ll just verify my account then.
You’re asked to upload an ID. Okay, that is super sensitive information, but I’ll comply…
Great, all complete, I’ll hear back from a rep within two business days! So far, so good.
Your appeal in and your identity papers with it, you expect the issue to be resolved promptly in good faith.
Hi Luke,
We’ve deemed the activity in your account is in violation of the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies. Your appeal has been denied and your account has been restricted permanently.
Wait, what? I thought you said this was a security issue? Why did I have to give you sensitive personal information like a picture of my ID?
And what exactly in the User Agreement and Professional Community Policies am I in violation of?
You read both in their entirety, and find nothing. LinkedIn will not tell you what specifically you are in violation of, if in fact you really are in violation of anything and this is not another “catch all” boiler plate message, which I’m 99% sure it is. There is no functional process to appeal further. You’re simply out of luck.
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Researching the matter online, the same lists are given everywhere as possibilities as to why you were banned:
- Too many views from an account (nope)
- A history of repetitive, abusive behavior (definitely not)
- An unusual amount of connect requests from an account (I don’t think so. While I probably have a lot of requests out because I never closed them and they don’t expire, I did not issue any connection requests within months of being banned)
- A low acceptance rate from connection requests (I don’t think so. How high or low are we talking? Do I need to put a more attractive picture in my profile like all of those really hot scammer accounts?)
- Using automation tools and plugins (nope)
- The name of the account violates LinkedIn’s User Agreement (nope)
- Inappropriate content or illegal activity (definitely nope)
- Receive excessive I don’t know this person flags (uh, I don’t think so)
- Hacked or compromised LikedIn account (Wait what? You’re not going to help me restore my account, but just outright ban me? Anyway, no, despite the message above, I am pretty positive that I was not hacked)
- Spammy activity (definitely no. I post thoughtful, long form content infrequently)
- You have a fake account (definitely not)
Okay, so those lists aren’t helpful in the least. Besides, I’ve read both the LinkedIn User Agreement and Professional Community Policies quite thoroughly, as you surely have if you’ve encountered this problem.
I’ve been a responsible user for more than a decade. If I indeed really did make some minor misstep somewhere, you’re obligated to at the very least contact me and give me the chance to correct it. Or if you can’t be bothered to even show that basic level of respect, at least tell me what precisely I did to warrant a complete termination of my account.
My own speculation? I mistyped my password when logging in twice just before this happened. I can only conclude that forgetting your password on LinkedIn must be an unforgivable sin which must ultimately result in you being banned, but I could be wrong. Maybe it’s the fact that I use Linux, and that has caused the algorithm to identify me as a bot, because only robots use Linux, right? I can only speculate.
The thing is, I’m far from alone. A google (or better yet, duckduckgo) search for “randomly banned by LinkedIn for no reason” returns an astonishing number of hits and stories just like my own, even complete with the same boiler plate auto response and initial excuse for temporarily suspending the account, and users having gone through the same ID verification process only to be inexplicably banned, and unable to get any reason or resolution to the situation from LinkedIn.
This isn’t just incredibly rude and disrespectful, confusing, and frustrating, it’s down-right antagonistic. This is happening to users who have built up networks, resumes, and business pages for years — even decades. Many entrepreneurs and small businesses, not to mention nonprofits rely on LinkedIn for a significant portion of their traffic, sales, and outreach.
To just sever relationships with such users overnight through such an entirely opaque and disingenuous process, without having given them any warning, explanation, or functioning appeal process is beyond absurd.
Nobody can trust or rely on a platform like that. Why should anyone use a platform when the rug can be pulled out from under you at any time, for no apparent reason, and with no functional appeal process? In the context of Business such as where LinkedIn operates, it’s not just unreasonable, it’s a huge risk.
LinkedIn is irreparably damaging their trust with the very users which give their platform value in the first place. This is not some isolated event, but is widespread, with the number of people getting caught in the crossfire of whatever algorithms are responsible increasing by the day.
As it currently stands, it’s not a platform that one can safely rely on, or expect to act fairly and reasonably in your interest. Treat it as such, and don’t rely on it.
