Excluding Business Services: LinkedIn Deletes a Content Space
June 20, 2013
Is this censorship? It is difficult to search for something when the content is not in the index. NBC News reports, “Frisky Business? LinkedIn Evicts Little-Known ‘Red Light District’.” The media hubbub began with what a representative calls a small clarification in the site’s policy statement: “Even if it is legal where you are located, [don’t] create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution.”
We sympathize. Understandably, LinkedIn does not want to be confused with Craigslist. Still, if a profession is legal where practiced, should the site really bar its practitioners from its hallowed pages? Writer Helen A.S. Popkin consulted brothel-owner Dennis Hof of Nevada, where the vocation is aboveboard:
“‘What’s the problem? We have a license to do this,’ said Hof, whose employees also have LinkedIn accounts. ‘Our business is as legal as theirs. . . .'”
Hof hopes LinkedIn doesn’t try to remove his account, or the accounts of his employees. ‘If it’s OK to do that, is it OK to drop Dairy Queen too because it serves too much fat and calories? Is LinkedIn going to be the moral arbiter, and drop Coca-Cola or anybody who works for a cigarette company? Where do you stop with that?'”
I think LinkedIn is actually pretty clear on where it, specifically, stops with that. I’m sure the site is simply protecting its reputation and working to maintain what it considers a professional tone. Still, barring a law-abiding businessperson just because the company doesn’t like the occupation. . . . Hmm.
Cynthia Murrell, June 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
