LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. As a platform that connects professionals from diverse backgrounds, LinkedIn aims to build a community where members can have respectful, meaningful discussions and interactions.
To ensure all members have a positive experience, LinkedIn has established Community Guidelines that outline what is and is not allowed on the platform. These guidelines cover areas like professional conduct, respectful communications, limitations on commercial use, and other rules members are expected to follow.
Why does LinkedIn have community guidelines?
LinkedIn has established community guidelines for several important reasons:
- To promote respectful, constructive dialogue between members
- To maintain a professional environment suited for career networking and development
- To prohibit offensive, illegal or otherwise inappropriate content and behaviors
- To ensure members feel comfortable sharing professional updates without harassment
- To prevent misuse of the platform, like excessive self-promotion or spam
In summary, the guidelines aim to foster a safe, professional community that brings value to all members.
What types of guidelines does LinkedIn have?
LinkedIn’s Community Guidelines cover the following areas:
Professional conduct
Members should behave professionally by:
- Engaging in respectful communications without harassment, hate speech, violence or profanity
- Not engaging in dishonest practices like intentionally providing misinformation or violating others’ privacy
- Not buying, selling or otherwise marketing professional services on the platform
Respectful communications
To maintain a respectful environment, do not post content that:
- Attacks or incites violence against individuals or groups
- Includes hate speech, slurs or harmful stereotypes
- Bullying, harasses, threatens or shames others
- Includes excessive or disturbing profanity
- Violates others’ privacy or shares confidential information
- Contains nudity, pornography or gratuitous violence
Commercial use
While some commercial activities like job ads and InMail are permitted, members should not:
- Solicit sales unrelated to recruiting talent or commercial products and services
- Redirect to websites featuring excessive or disruptive ads or promotions
- Engage in tactics considered spam, like repeatedly contacting members unsolicited
Other prohibited activities
Members must also refrain from:
- Impersonating others or misrepresenting identities
- Distributing viruses, malware or other harmful content
- Violating copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights
- Sharing information related to illegal activities
- Attempting to undermine or exploit LinkedIn’s technology
What are the consequences of violating the guidelines?
If members violate the community guidelines, LinkedIn may take action including:
- Removing inappropriate posts or reported content
- Disabling accounts either temporarily or permanently
- Limiting access to certain platform features and services
- Reporting violations to law enforcement if illegal activities are involved
The specific consequence depends on factors like the severity and frequency of the violation. In most cases, LinkedIn will issue a warning first and give members a chance to correct their behavior before taking harsher action.
How can I report violations of LinkedIn’s guidelines?
If you encounter content or behavior that appears to violate LinkedIn’s professional community standards, you can report it to LinkedIn by following these steps:
- Click the “More…” button on the post, profile, message or other content in violation.
- Select “Report/Block”.
- Choose the reason that best describes the issue from the available options.
- Provide any additional details in the text box.
- Submit your report.
You can also report inappropriate ads, job posts, groups and other areas of LinkedIn in a similar fashion by selecting “Report” from the applicable menu.
LinkedIn reviews all reports carefully and takes action when appropriate based on their guidelines. Reporting violations helps maintain the professional standards of the LinkedIn community.
How are controversial topics handled?
While members can engage in robust dialogue around complex issues, LinkedIn aims to prevent these conversations from escalating into counterproductive disputes. When discussing controversial societal topics, members should:
- Share ideas and opinions without attacks, insults or threats directed at individuals or groups
- Provide accurate information from reliable sources, not rumors or misinformation
- Be open to perspectives different from your own and engage respectfully
Posts related to controversial issues may include a disclaimer noting that the views belong to the individual and do not represent LinkedIn. LinkedIn may also add relevant factual information to provide context around controversial posts without taking a position.
What are LinkedIn’s guidelines around self-promotion?
While members are permitted to share updates on their professional projects and accomplishments, LinkedIn aims to prevent excessive self-promotion that could compromise the member experience. When self-promoting, do so in a way that aligns with these best practices:
- Mention your own projects, products or services only occasionally, not repeatedly
- Focus updates on providing value to your connections rather than direct sales pitches
- Engage with other members’ content through likes, comments and sharing
- Contribute information and insights related to your expertise to establish credibility
In general, no more than 10-15% of your activity should directly promote your company, products or services. LinkedIn may limit reach or flag accounts that are excessively self-promotional rather than contributing value to the community.
Are there restrictions around posting job opportunities?
LinkedIn aims to provide a platform where members can discover professional opportunities. However, to maintain quality, job posts must adhere to the following guidelines:
- Jobs must represent legitimate hiring opportunities, not business proposals or solicitations
- Compensation and responsibilities should accurately reflect the role’s scope and seniority
- Employment opportunities should not discriminate or illegally exclude qualified candidates
- Jobs must not promote business opportunities requiring payment or recruitment fees
Employers should post no more than one duplicate job per location to avoid flooding members’ feeds. LinkedIn reserves the right to remove posts in violation of quality standards for job listings.
What rules does LinkedIn have around advertising?
LinkedIn allows paid advertising to reach members but maintains guidelines to ensure relevance and quality. All LinkedIn ads must:
- Align with LinkedIn’s professional context and avoid inappropriate or offensive content
- Transparently identify themselves as sponsored content
- Comply with LinkedIn’s policies related to non-discrimination and diversity
- Abide by regulations around disclosure of promotions, sweepstakes or giveaways
In addition, LinkedIn prohibits many product and service categories from advertising including illegal or recreational drugs, weapons, gambling sites, counterfeit goods and more. All ads are reviewed to ensure they meet standards before appearing to members.
What are LinkedIn’s demographics guidelines?
LinkedIn aims to be inclusive of professionals from all backgrounds. To prevent exclusion or discrimination in how members interact on the platform:
- Do not target content or advertising in ways that illegally exclude groups based on demographic factors like race, ethnicity, gender or age.
- Avoid broad generalizations about demographic groups that may be harmful.
- Do not engage in harassing or hateful behavior directed at marginalized groups.
Members can report demographic targeting concerns to LinkedIn as potential violations of the professional community’s standards against discrimination.
How does LinkedIn handle misinformation?
LinkedIn strives to reduce misinformation and promote informed discussions based on accurate information. To do so, LinkedIn:
- Encourages members to substantiate claims with credible third-party sources
- Applies warning labels to content with possible misinformation
- Provides additional context and fact-checking information on trending issues
- Restricts spread of posts sharing falsehoods that could cause harm
However, LinkedIn avoids removing content simply due to disagreement, instead focusing on clear violations of guidelines around misinformation that can impact public health, safety, trust in democratic processes, or important policy issues.
How can LinkedIn remove accounts or content?
There are a few key ways LinkedIn may remove accounts or content, including:
- User reports – Members can report concerning accounts or posts which LinkedIn reviews for policy violations.
- Proactive detection – LinkedIn uses technology like AI to identify potential guideline violations for human review.
- Trusted flagger program – Outside experts partner with LinkedIn to identify harmful accounts and content.
- Legal requests – LinkedIn may be compelled to remove content or accounts due to court orders or legal regulations.
Except for legal requirements, LinkedIn aims to be transparent about actions taken, notifying affected members when possible and providing an appeals process.
Can banned members rejoin LinkedIn?
If an account is permanently closed for severe or repeated violations, that member will not be allowed to recreate their account. However, if an account is temporarily restricted, members can appeal or have the suspension lifted after a set time period.
To request reinstatement after a temporary ban, members should:
- Ensure the suspension period and any other conditions have been satisfied
- Apologize and acknowledge wrongdoing if applicable
- Explain steps taken to improve behavior going forward
- Submit an appeal through LinkedIn’s appeal form
LinkedIn reviews appeals on a case-by-case basis. Approval is more likely for minor first-time offenses where members commit to observing the professional community’s guidelines moving forward.
How often are LinkedIn’s guidelines updated?
LinkedIn periodically reviews and updates its community guidelines to address emerging issues and provide clarification. Major changes involve:
- Monitoring member feedback on existing policies
- Analyzing usage data and trends to identify problem areas
- Assessing internal moderation practices and external best practices
- Incorporating guidance from LinkedIn’s policy advisory council
Typically, LinkedIn updates its guidelines every 6-12 months. More frequent revisions may occur around topics like elections, health issues or new product launches needing specific guidance. Members receive email notifications when significant updates are made.
How does LinkedIn enforce its guidelines globally?
While LinkedIn’s guidelines apply globally, enforcement considers local laws, cultural context, language issues, and on-the-ground realities. LinkedIn approaches include:
- Crafting global guidelines that avoid conflicts with major local laws
- Providing regional versions of policies translated into local languages
- Having region-specific content review teams
- Leveraging local partners and advisors to understand local nuance
This localized approach helps LinkedIn enforce guidelines consistently across diverse geographies. Contextual variations and localized feedback inform how global standards are implemented regionally.
Conclusion
LinkedIn’s community guidelines aim to maintain a professional, respectful environment that fosters constructive dialogue between members. By outlining expected conduct and prohibited behavior, LinkedIn sets standards that allow members to network, learn and interact productively. While designed to be comprehensive, the guidelines also provide flexibility for LinkedIn to address emerging issues and local considerations when needed. With a thoughtful approach to policy and enforcement, LinkedIn can uphold its vision of creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.
