On 5/1/22 I discovered that LinkedIn shadowbanned my account.
How did this happen?
I have historically posted scantly while remaining consistent with private messages and post comments. This activity has kept a minimal, yet substantial, level of engagement with my account. The content I cover specifically revolves around Web3. From NFTs, DeFi, the ‘metaverse’, and even thoughts on DAOs, I assumed that these topics were fairly relevant - especially in the business world.
With all of the madness going on, there have been a few others I am connected with claiming to be shadowbanned. There is one commonality.
At some point in time, each of us has either fully or partially changed our profile pictures to represent an NFT that we own.
This phenomenon has largely been a black box for us exploring new means of expressing our interests on sites such as LinkedIn. Though we can each understand why LinkedIn would like to appeal to its core audience, it surprises me that they contradict its underlying ethos. That is, its sole purpose is to forge networks amongst professionals who seek to push the boundary of innovation. Is digital ownership not innovative enough? Or, is it too unsettling for their primary consumer? It appears that the latter is true in this circumstance.
How did I find out if I was shadowbanned?
This process was relatively straightforward. A previous Googling of my name would result in my LinkedIn profile being positioned #1. Now, it isn’t even on the 20th page… it’s not there at all. I can still access my account and thus did not receive an outright ban, but as another precaution, I asked a close friend to Google my name. Same result. Interestingly enough, they couldn’t even find me when directly searching for my name on the platform itself.
An Underlying Meaning
Being shadowbanned caused such a stir in me that I’m writing here now.
I mean think about it. After 8 years of building a profile with over 2k connections, this move represents a complete diminishing of the time I’ve invested into the platform.
LinkedIn effectively told me that my identity and interests were a direct violation of the evolution of thought leadership and supported societal norms within their closed ecosystem. Worst of all, there is nobody to message nor contact to help change this outcome.
What was my resolve?
To be completely honest, I highly value my LinkedIn profile. Since the shadowban, I’ve effectively changed my pfp to a full and stuffy suit and tie version of myself. Until sites such as gm.xyz, Twitter, and Instagram, gain a professional level of networking capabilities, those of us seeking to leverage LinkedIn will have to abide by their terms and conditions. I still see a means of engineering my profile so the algorithms running LinkedIn start displaying my profile again, but wow, I can’t emphasize how much that hurt to type.
An Optimistic Future
Optimism is my default outlook on life, so I felt it fitting to conclude with a few positive viewpoints.
- If not shadowbanned, I wouldn’t be posting here now, and plan to do so on a much more frequent basis.
- I now realize how critical decentralization and an ability to maintain our identity are.
- Each of us has the freedom to selectively choose where we distribute our knowledge, invest our time, and create tools/ideas that alter how we move through the world.
- Legacy platforms are ready for disruption. Ready to build? :)