Over the past few weeks, I have found myself in a battle with Linkedin where there is no way to win. They have full control, they believe in their algorithm so much so that there is no human override even though they accept that it may be incorrect. I just have to accept the fact that my LinkedIn account has been blocked. No explanation, no reason, no notice, and no suggestions on how to fix it.

Allow me to give you some context. For the past 2 years after I sold my company I decided to concentrate on my personal brand and build a new business offering my services as a Startup mentor/advisor, and motivational speaker and my expertise in the field of SaaS and Entrepreneurship.

I wrote weekly articles, connected to people, and, published newsletters and the effort that was required to gain traction and in particular on Linkedin. After 12 months, I decided to analyse the data and the results of my efforts. The results were not so encouraging.

At first, I hired a marketing company to help with improving my Linkedin marketing but after three months of work, the results were no better than when I was just working on my own.

After that period, I decided that it must be my lack of knowledge and expertise in digital marketing. So I enrolled in a digital marketing course. Six weeks later, what turned out to be a very informative course I dug a little deeper. I had learnt a lot. I was implementing a lot of new strategies and things that I had learnt yet the results were exactly the same.

When things don’t improve at all, then there must be other reasons. At this point, I started digging into Linkedin’s settings, until I came across the “Creator Mode” tool. While my Creator mode was switched on, my Follow Tools has been limited. This means that no matter what I write, the algorithm on Linkedin will reduce its visibility and impression in order to protect the Linkedin community from my posts!

As a suggestion, it provides this link “https://www.linkedin.com/legal/professional-community-policies”

Their motto: Be Safe, Be Trustworthy and Be Professional.

Great. I comply with all the above. However, after opening several support tickets, they inform me that the Linkedin algorithm has decided that this is not the case and there is nothing I or they can do to override.

There is no date for lifting this restriction and despite the fact that I have never been informed of any such misconduct, Linkedin reserves the right to unilaterally restrict my account indefinitely.

We put too much trust in these platforms and until it does not affect us personally, we do not appreciate the dire consequences they can have on our lives.

Have you ever been unjustly blocked by one of these networks? A few of my friends have experienced such issues with Paypal, Facebook, and Google. The result was devastating for their business. The problem is there was little they could do. Who do you complain to? How do you take a giant like them to court? You will be dead or bankrupt before the case gets a hearing.

We as a community must do more the ensure these platforms provide just customer service and remain responsible for the power they hold and that issues of this kind are dealt with in a timely and just manner.

Unless we resolve this, you or your friend might just be the next person that will face the wrath of these giants.