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Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

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Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#11

Post by scrollaway »

Havoc wrote: post #9

Linkedin doesn't do avatars. They do pictures of you. You are not a cartoon character. > Some examples of photos that shouldn't be used are: > Avatars, emojis, or cartoons The straight ban seems excessively harsh, but fundamentally the pic does seem to be against their policies. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1377087/profi...

Yup, but I didn't know that (and when I signed up, it pulled my profile picture from Google, so I didn't think anything of it), and I wasn't given a chance to fix it.

They even sent an email after the ban giving me a "friendly heads up" that my profile pictures has been taken down, and advising me to upload a new one. If I had gotten that email a day before I could have done something about it...

The help article says it can be removed, but it doesn't say anything about the account getting altogether blocked with no warning...

Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#12

Post by londons_explore »

rngname22 wrote: post #8
scrollaway wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. I just logged on and got hit with a captcha + ID verification. They just said they do it when there is a potential account compromise.

Potentially someone or some bot was spamming login attempts to your account or something? Or actually got in? And their automated tools detected and triggered your account to enter a state where it required ID verif. before login is possible. Sounds like their appeals process is broken/bugged or they just don't staff it (and auto-close / auto-reject appeals).

Or maybe he then failed the ID verification step because they match your uploaded government photoid to your profile picture. Can't match to a cartoon.

Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#14

Post by jchw »

Havoc wrote: post #9

Linkedin doesn't do avatars. They do pictures of you. You are not a cartoon character. > Some examples of photos that shouldn't be used are: > Avatars, emojis, or cartoons The straight ban seems excessively harsh, but fundamentally the pic does seem to be against their policies. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1377087/profi...

I had no idea about this policy. Then again, I hate linkedin with a passion. However, I'm pretty sure I saw tons of violations of this policy all over the place, so I bet this is going to result in a lot of bans if they happen to be doing a crackdown.

The funny thing is, on a platform like linkedin, my instinct would be to use an actual photograph. But in protest of a policy like this, I'd rather just have nothing instead.

Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#16

Post by happytoexplain »

Havoc wrote: post #9

Linkedin doesn't do avatars. They do pictures of you. You are not a cartoon character. > Some examples of photos that shouldn't be used are: > Avatars, emojis, or cartoons The straight ban seems excessively harsh, but fundamentally the pic does seem to be against their policies. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1377087/profi...

"seems excessively harsh" seems like a knowing understatement. It is not "excessive", it is incorrect. The link you posted provides clear language:

"Your profile photo may be removed by LinkedIn if it doesn’t comply"

According to this, the reason they were banned is not due to their avatar (but we can't know because LinkedIn has declined to elaborate, according to the OP).

Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#18

Post by mlyle »

jchw wrote: post #14
Havoc wrote: post #9

Linkedin doesn't do avatars. They do pictures of you. You are not a cartoon character. > Some examples of photos that shouldn't be used are: > Avatars, emojis, or cartoons The straight ban seems excessively harsh, but fundamentally the pic does seem to be against their policies. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1377087/profi...

I had no idea about this policy. Then again, I hate linkedin with a passion. However, I'm pretty sure I saw tons of violations of this policy all over the place, so I bet this is going to result in a lot of bans if they happen to be doing a crackdown. The funny thing is, on a platform like linkedin, my instinct would be to use an actual photograph. But in protest of a policy like this, I'd rather just have nothing in…

The whole photographs thing is a real mixed bag anyways. Seeing a picture to jog your memory is sometimes great.

But it's also a great way to enable racial and age discrimination: see the face and decide you interpret all the rest of the context in the profile differently (even inadvertently).

Sure, you'll know the race / age / etc eventually, but at least if the person is in the door they have a chance instead of getting chucked in the bin during screening.

Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#19

Post by rngname22 »

londons_explore wrote: post #12
rngname22 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Potentially someone or some bot was spamming login attempts to your account or something? Or actually got in? And their automated tools detected and triggered your account to enter a state where it required ID verif. before login is possible. Sounds like their appeals process is broken/bugged or they just don't staff it (and auto-close / auto-reject appeals).

Or maybe he then failed the ID verification step because they match your uploaded government photoid to your profile picture. Can't match to a cartoon.

Yep I was gonna say the same. Automated ID verif by comparing facial geometry to the profile pic, if it fails you're toast.

Thing is they should either have an appeals process that works or they should require the ID verif at sign-up (so people discover they can't get by with a fake photo at the start before they invest in the platform and can remake their account). It does sound like fake photo might be against TOS but no one reads TOS?

Sounds like the current system sucks ass. Trust and Safety often underfunded / underthought though nothing surprising.

Re: Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise

#20

Post by scrollaway »

happytoexplain wrote: post #16
Havoc wrote: post #9

Linkedin doesn't do avatars. They do pictures of you. You are not a cartoon character. > Some examples of photos that shouldn't be used are: > Avatars, emojis, or cartoons The straight ban seems excessively harsh, but fundamentally the pic does seem to be against their policies. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1377087/profi...

"seems excessively harsh" seems like a knowing understatement. It is not "excessive", it is incorrect . The link you posted provides clear language: "Your profile photo may be removed by LinkedIn if it doesn’t comply" According to this, the reason they were banned is not due to their avatar (but we can't know because LinkedIn has declined to elaborate, according to the OP).

The only context I didn't mention is I set up an ad campaign the week prior to boost a post for the startup in question. I suspect that this is what triggered the ID verification a few days later, which resulted in an "appeal denied" email.

I can only guess. But I did receive a confirmation email about my avatar being taken down due to their policy; and the appeal message mentions "misrepresenting my identity".

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