Some LinkedIn users are being driven off the platform by unwanted flirtatious DMs – NBC New York

Some LinkedIn users reported receiving unsolicited flirtatious messages through the platform; Bernie Hogan, an expert at the Oxford Internet Institute, said the employment-focused social website was increasingly being used for dating purposes.

Blair Huddy, founder and CEO of Hudson Davis Communications, told CNBC that a LinkedIn user sent her messages on two separate occasions asking if she could connect with clients for business, but Huddy did not respond.

“Send me a message when you finish the elusive game,” the user said in his final message, seen via screenshots by CNBC Make It.

Huddy, 35, who lives in Los Angeles, said that when he receives such messages, he usually takes screenshots and shares them on LinkedIn, tagging the person who sent the messages. “It’s such a disgusting feeling… disgusting, unprofessional,” Huddy told CNBC. He has been an active LinkedIn user since 2012.

Technology consultant Shriya Boppana also reported receiving disturbing messages on the platform. She said she attracted the attention of a “really weird group of followers” in 2020 after she updated her LinkedIn profile to reflect that she had recently won a beauty pageant and landed a hosting job on a TV show.

An IT support worker he had previously worked with found her on the platform and said she looked “nice,” according to messages reviewed by CNBC. Another man sent her a message seen by CNBC: “I always knew you were beautiful but you never told me you were a pageant queen.” Both Huddy and Boppana are still active and posting on LinkedIn.

A LinkedIn spokesperson told CNBC Make It that the platform, which launched in 2003 and is currently in use, is coming to an end. 1 billion members It describes itself globally as a “professional community” and adds that it encourages its members to “engage in meaningful, authentic conversations.” Owner of LinkedIn Microsoft.

“This includes light-hearted and respectful conversation, as long as it doesn’t violate our rules. community policies. “Romantic advances and harassment of any kind are violations of our rules, and our policies contain detailed examples of what type of content does not belong on LinkedIn,” the spokesperson said.

Concrete data on the subject is limited. According to a survey of 1,049 female LinkedIn users in the United States last year, nearly 91% of them said they had received romantic overtures or inappropriate messages on the platform at least once. Seventy-four percent of respondents felt the need to quit or limit their activities on the platform as a result, according to the survey published by Photo Studio. Passport Photo Online.

Looking at user activity more broadly, a more recent survey of 505 U.S. consumers ages 20 to 40 was published by . DatingNews.comIt found that 52% meet people for dating through networking platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.

‘Not a workplace’

Bernie Hogan, an associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, told CNBC that LinkedIn is a social media platform just like Instagram. Facebook. Although using LinkedIn is often “framed as a business activity,” users are free to send any message to whomever they want without strict regulations, Hogan said.

“LinkedIn is not a workplace, it just frames itself as a workplace,” he told CNBC Make It. “Offices and workplaces would normally regulate these things, but social media leaves it up to people to regulate.”

hogan said He feels that LinkedIn does not appropriately penalize users for inappropriate behavior, often leaving the victim to deal with the issue on their own using strategies such as blocking or public shaming.

“LinkedIn needs to take some of the responsibility for maintaining a professional environment because they can’t put that on people’s employers,” he noted. “Their employers don’t run LinkedIn.”

A LinkedIn spokesperson emphasized that the platform already has advanced security features To protect users from unwanted behavior. The spokesperson said the feature “when enabled, alerts members when harassment is detected in private messaging.”

“We also encourage our members” report “Any incident of harassment on LinkedIn signals to us that such behavior is undesirable, allowing us to take action,” they said.

These actions can be: removal of content that the offender has sent or even suspended his account.

But Hogan suggested LinkedIn should start incorporating AI tools to keep users who send inappropriate messages in check, rather than placing the onus on the person receiving the messages to report or block the perpetrator.

This means that users who try to write inappropriate messages will be detected by artificial intelligence and warned or blocked from sending the message.

“We already have online dating sites where people can’t send overly aggressive messages. Bumble and Tinder already have security protocols so people can’t send unsolicited images or sexually explicit images. They can block that. LinkedIn needs to have technology like that on hand, too,” Hogan added.

Relationship expert Courtney Boyer tells CNBC Make It that LinkedIn has become an alternative to traditional dating apps like Hinge, Tinder and Bumble, which are now out of favor.

recently Forbes Health Survey Of the 1,000 Americans who used dating apps in the past year, 78% found they felt emotionally, mentally, or physically exhausted when using dating apps sometimes, often, or all of the time.

“People are tired of traditional dating apps because they don’t have the things that people value that are easily filtered,” Boyer said, saying users have to pay more to access certain filters on some dating sites.

But Boyer added that on LinkedIn, you can easily filter people for free by their industry, education, and experience level, all of which are traits that can increase your “sexual appeal” when dating.

Hogan of the Oxford Internet Institute agrees, saying the nature of the site is “adjacent to dating” because it involves “the practice of offering yourself to meet people you don’t know for an end.”

“So LinkedIn has created an effective dating site without dating,” Hogan added.

Central Florida-based Sasha Dutta, founder and CEO of wedding planning company Fierce Events, said she’s seen her share of flirtatious DMs on LinkedIn. However, he added that if he had not been in a relationship at the time, he would have considered more respectful messages.

Dutta, 34, who is South Asian and is currently married, says her community highly values ​​career and educational compatibility when two people come together romantically.

“I don’t see it as a bad thing… the proliferation of dating apps is huge and every friend of mine on the dating app says it’s like a part-time job and it’s a lot of work to handle everyone,” Dutta explained.

“I think on LinkedIn you pull out a lot of the things you’d ask them on a first date; very simple superficial questions, like what do they do or what’s their career path, you get the sense right off the bat.”

LinkedIn’s professional community policies say: “LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, not a dating site. Do not use LinkedIn to make romantic connections, solicit romantic dates, or make sexual comments about someone’s appearance or perceived attractiveness.”

Are behaviors changing on the internet?

Huddy, who met his wife when they started working together, says millions of people meet their real-life partners at work.

“Many of the activities we do in person at work are shifting to online behavior,” he said.

Approaching someone on LinkedIn isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Huddy said, “you just have to be careful how you do it.”

Hogan of the Oxford Internet Institute added that the most important factor is allowing others the freedom to say no and leave the conversation if they are not interested.