7 ms·
Tell HN: LinkedIn banned me because of my avatar, in the middle of my fundraise
I've been on LinkedIn for a while with zero issues with my normal cartoon avatar (which I use absolutely everywhere). Then yesterday, in the middle of my new startup's fundraise, they hit me with an ID verification and banned my account + deleted my startup's page.
My profile is missing. I have unanswered messages with people whose emails I don't have. Potential investors etc. Friends reaching out asking me why my profile is missing.
They didn't tell me why. Still this morning I didn't know. Now they just responded with an email telling me my "appeal has been denied", and telling me that they removed my avatar for not complying with the TOS.
Zero warning, just straight to ban. This is the avatar: https://leclan.ch (it's used with the author's permission)
- caseyf7 3y agoWe as an industry should just stop using LimkedIn
- janalsncm 3y agoAnd do what instead?
- pokeb 3y agoContribute exclusively to open source and let big software corporations die. The Linux kernel has been developed by email since the beginning. It runs the world. All the other crap we layered on was resource wasting “job creation” that gave MS, Meta, and the like outsized reach and influence These days I appreciate my computer engineering degree; we’ll always need AI capable hardware. Not so much the filesystem taxonomy police.
- andsoitis 3y ago> Contribute exclusively to open source and let big software corporations die. Sounds like you’re either in the privileged position to not have to earn a living or you earn a living outside the software industry. For many of us, we prefer to get paid to write software and make interesting products.
- ipaddr 3y agoThousands of people make a living off open source and many are interesting products. Going commercial makes it easier to make a living. If making a living on open source is privileged, that privilege comes from hard work and some luck.
- andsoitis 3y ago> Thousands of people make a living off open source Meanwhile, there are an estimated 26.9 million professional software engineers in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demograph...
- pokeb 3y agoMany of us prefer otherwise. Why is my identity coupled to serving your sensibilities? Compensation just means money cause the story goes that makes primates still coupled to Earth and social norms (make money) freer? Ok. Yeah. Why is how I have to utilized technology coupled to your preference to make money? Just as arbitrary a social ideology as religion, since it’s not a divine mandate. It’s just clinging to some abstract historical barnacle, LARPing proper stewardship of reality. LLMs hallucinate because humans hallucinate.
- unmole 3y agoHow old are you? I ask because this is puerile nonsense.
- pokeb 3y agoYou’re just another of billions of primates. It’s just as puerile to think your view is sacrosanct. None of the primates eviscerating the environment for video games and comic book movies have the moral high ground.
- muzani 3y agoI ignored it for a decade and things went fine. But for some reason, more people took LinkedIn seriously, and it has become the most stable of social media.
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y agoI have never used LinkedIn my entire life. I had a very good career and now a very good business without being on that spam infested platform.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y agoI have an account but have never gotten any value out of it. Just a bit of recruiter spam. I'm not really sure what its purpose is. Just apply for jobs the old fashioned way, I don't see how a friend of a friend of a friend can possibly lend any credibility whatsoever.
- scrollaway 3y agoDepending on your sector, it might be a messaging/intro platform, it might also be a way for people to do a quick background check on you without asking for your CV.
- Trias11 3y agoWe should use it (or anything else) but not rely on it. If it's useful while it lasts, why not. Always have Plan B, C, D, etc... Internet is polluted with horror stories from clueless users: "omg (youtube|facebook|linkdin|(tele|insta)gram) banned me and my business! Help!"
- WhatDFHere 3y agowow - when they first banned you did you receive an email in your inbox with any details? I'm surprised as MSFT would typically provide some information like a third-party claiming IP infringement or violation of content policies
- scrollaway 3y agoNothing. 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.
- rngname22 3y agoPotentially 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).
- londons_explore 3y agoOr 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.
- rngname22 3y agoYep 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.
- 3y ago
- version_five 3y agoWhat part of the TOS did it violate?
- scrollaway 3y agoIn the follow up email (sent after the ban, and with a helpful "Please upload a new one", which I cannot do because it's restricted), they cite that "profile photos can get flagged for: (...) Not being an image of you or an actual photograph".
- zgluck 3y ago> they cite that "profile photos can get flagged for: (...) Not being an image of you or an actual photograph". That actually seems fair to me, considering what LinkedIn is.
- gknoy 3y agoThat seems very strange that they would _ban the account_ rather than deleting the profile image and rendering a placeholder instead.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mx_02 3y agoDo no expect common sense from IT companies. Google is even worse. It's pretty normal to ban people instead of trying ro fox the issue. It's probably cheaper to them. We have no rights and no protection from corporations other than "Do business somewhere else"
- zgluck 3y ago[flagged]
- scrollaway 3y ago
- geoah 3y agoIs your avatar Marten for QC? :D
- scrollaway 3y agoYes, good eye :) I used it for years, and eventually just asked the author to get his official permission. I treasure it.
- unforeseen9991 3y agoNice :) That's pretty cool of Jeph to give you the go ahead. Also I think this is the first time i've come across some fellow QC enjoyers in the wild lol.
- derekja 3y agoNice! I read that comic every day :-)
- Havoc 3y agoLinkedin 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/profile-photo-guidelines-and-conditions?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1377087/profi...
- scrollaway 3y agoYup, 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...
- jchw 3y agoI 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.
- mlyle 3y agoThe 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.
- 3y ago
- nashashmi 3y agoI am guessing that the more attention you got, the more scrutiny your profile received. And thus someone reported you for violating the TOS. That someone may be a competitor??
- sgt 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoPlease don't cross into personal attack.
- orangetexter 3y agoSign up for one of their paid plans and resubmit your support requests. They’ll help a paying customer much quicker than non-paying customer.
- scrollaway 3y agoI can't log in.
- rngname22 3y agoMaybe create a new account (even if it requires VPN / new device ID, new email, new IP), then get paid plan on that, then contact support?
- scrollaway 3y agoHonestly, I have zero doubt it would make things worse and get me blocked again for ban evasion / duplicate accounts. I also used to be on Premium a while back, and I don't remember any customer support beyond automated billing CS trees.
- probably_wrong 3y agoI'm not sure how it could make it worse. What are they going to do, call your parents? Super ban you?
- solardev 3y agoThere's not going to be someone on the other side thinking "oh okay well this guy must be legit, he made a new paid account just to talk to us and let us know what happened. We'll help him now that we know what happened!" It's gonna be a bunch of separate underpaid undertrained drones seeing a duplicate account and banning that one too and making up random TOS violations, probably a different one every time. Then even if you manage to reach someone on the first account they'll be like sorry you were banned for spamming, I don't know anything about the profile picture. These sites don't care about you. At all.
- j-bos 3y agoIn the days of deep fakes I find it weird that real photos are a requirement on a social media site. I'd prefer to limit photos floating around.
- shortrounddev2 3y agoI've gotten so many "recruiters" message me whose PFPs are obviously AI generated
- shitlord 3y agoI've been cluelessly using a picture of my dog for about a decade now
- andsoitis 3y ago> real photos are a requirement on a social media site Plenty of people on LinkedIn do NOT have a profile image. Profile photos on LinkedIn are optional: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a545557/settings-for-profile-photo-visibility?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a545557/settin...
- nikanj 3y agoCongratulations, you have successfully reached The One True Customer Service: HN front page. Expect your issue to be resolved promptly. The HN front page proudly serves customers from all megacorporations, including but not limited to the classic FAANG, Microsoft and many others. Is your account locked and customer service unwilling to review your case? Did all your data disappear and you can only reach a chat bot from 1997? Stop wasting time with official channels, post on HN front page today!
- frollo 3y agoI have lots of complaints about this website, but seeing how quickly things get solved when you're getting a bad rep in the whole damned industry is always fun.
- jdthedisciple 3y agoTbh I don't mind learning about the latest frenzies in big tech. Serves as a good warning at times, don't you think? Esp. if potential data loss is involved.
- paxys 3y agoSounds like some moderator/support agent was on a power trip. Even if such a policy exists, deleting an entire profile without letting the problem even be addressed first is wayyyy too strict an enforcement.
- 0xfedbee 3y agoI don't know why people even use the cesspool that's LinkedIn. I deleted my account in 2012 because of their spam emails and haven't looked back since.
- scrollaway 3y agoHonestly so did I. I recreated it last year after managing /not/ to use it for a long time. But my sector is particularly LinkedIn-heavy and when you're fundraising it's nigh impossible not to use it. Plus it's for a legaltech, so a LinkedIn page for it is important from the marketing side of things.
- valar_m 3y agoBecause it's invaluable during a job search. A person can easily apply to 50 jobs in one evening through LinkedIn. A decade or so ago, that could take a full week of work or more. Each individual company you applied to would require you to register on their job board and fill out a long application where you re-enter the information from the resume you just uploaded. It could take an hour or two just to apply to a single job. And that's only after you lucked into finding the job posting in the first place because postings weren't centralized and searchable like now with LinkedIn. To your point though, I do pretty much forget that LinkedIn exists if I'm not actively in a job search.
- sjducb 3y agoWhen you’re back in set up 2FA it stops a lot of the blocking when you do high risk things like start new ad campaigns or new startup pages. The initial red flag is usually a security red flag.
- scrollaway 3y agoThank you - I had 2FA on; still do in fact, it's asking me for it on login before hitting me with the captcha + ID verif.
- dan301 3y agoI rarely use LinkedIn but I was also banned without warning/reason after attempting to post a new job. Any ideas on getting reactivated? Support emails are responded to with a generic denial template.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- egberts1 3y agoLinkedIn is just being racist. Say this often enough and they'll drop the "real" photo requirement.
- scrollaway 3y agoUpdate: The hold has been removed. Thank you HN.
- glimmung 3y agoAny news as to the process or reasoning for the hold?
- scrollaway 3y agoThey confirmed it was because of the profile picture, but did not explain why they went so far as to put a hold on the picture. I think it's because there was an ad campaign running at the same time which triggered extra scrutiny.
- JCharante 3y agoUnrelated, but I really like your simple website that just serves as a business card.
- scrollaway 3y agoThank you! :)
- andrefuchs 3y agoI once reported an API bug to LinkedIn. Received an email that I initially thought was a thank you note, but it turned out to be about my avatar (a stylized animal picture) being removed.
- ailef 3y agoSome time ago I was banned as well, even though I don't remember exactly why but it was a similarly petty reason. What solved it for me was telling that my account was hacked in the support ticket. If this was an automated ban, maybe shifting the blame to the "hackers" might get your account back if you're lucky.