Petition seeks blocking ability on LinkedIn

Screen capture via SocialTimes.com: LinkedIn engineers propose member blocking

A Change.org petition asks that the LinkedIn professional social network offer what other social networks provide: the ability to block an abusive user. As related by Social Times, Anna Rihtar created the petition in response to stalking on social media by her boss:

“Rihtar could use her privacy settings to stop her stalker from reaching her on Twitter and Facebook, but she found that LinkedIn’s policies were different from those of the other networks. ‘Having written to LinkedIn customer service about blocking a user,’ she explained in her petition, ‘I was told I was only able to block a member if that member is prohibited from having a LinkedIn account by virtue of a court order.’”

Aligning LinkedIn with these other policies seems only common sense.

I was whomperjawed viewing a post on Rihtar’s privacy/blocking petition group on LinkedIn, suggesting that the dissatisfied user “send [a] message” by not using LinkedIn.

When I signed the petition today, I included the following statement:

“As a consequence of speaking out about being bullied in school, I’ve been subject to ‘victim-blaming,’ holding the victim responsible for somehow failing to prevent the abuse. With this petition, I see an attempt to redress a similar injustice. Requiring the target of harassment or stalking to curtail professional networking activities adds an unfair additional burden to the trauma of being abused.”

As Rihtar told Social Times regarding posts similar to the one I viewed: “The most important thing to anybody in the working world is networking and making connections with people. LinkedIn is the best avenue for that right now.”

There may be a positive outcome on the horizon; Social Times reproduced a LinkedIn “HackDay” entry from December 2012: “Having a stalker is a real thing, and we have no ability to allow members to block their stalkers. ... This hack fixes this problem, and lets you block members who are being unprofessional in a professional social network.”