The LinkedIn platform in France.. How did it become a trap for sexual harassment and harassment?

How did the largest network of professionals in the world turn into a platform for sexual harassment and a trap for women wishing to join the labor market?

Le Monde wrote about the phenomenon that has spread on LinkedIn, where some people stalk women who want a job or even just training opportunities to lure them.

Gaëlle Etienne did not expect, when she received a message notification on LinkedIn last October, to be met on the screen by an inappropriate image sent by “a man I had just added. Someone with a very senior position in a prestigious company.”

Gayle (22 years old) says that she is accustomed to receiving inappropriate messages related to her work, but until last October this happened exclusively on the Instagram and Facebook platforms.

“I thought I was safe from all this on LinkedIn. I felt nauseous,” adds Gayle, who in 2022 joined the most famous professional networking network in the world.

Banal phenomena
About 30 million people use LinkedIn in France to search for work or promote their CVs, just as companies use it for recruitment purposes, to search for cooperation projects, or to reach clients.

“Harassment, stalking, and threats have become banal phenomena on LinkedIn,” says Johanna Soria Ben Amrouche, a member of the French Feminist Association to Combat Electronic Harassment.

According to this activist, many of the platform's users who leave the messaging service open without screening (in anticipation of any professional opportunity) receive messages of a sexual nature.

LinkedIn confirms that harassment and even romantic advances are a violation of its policies, and has developed tools to help users search for work safely, and warns against private messages that may appear to be of a sexual nature.

The platform also confirms that it takes appropriate measures and carefully studies every report, noting that the harassment reporting service is available on the platform, so that the suspect does not feel that he is the subject of a complaint.

"Monster world"
Iman Bounouh (25 years old), a Frenchwoman who currently works as a content creator on the networks, also had her own story with harassment on LinkedIn when she began in 2018, while still a student, to build a network of relationships in the hope of facilitating obtaining a job.

She adds, "At the beginning of my experience with LinkedIn, I was searching for the names of brands that I liked and adding everyone to my list."

But soon, she began to receive messages that had nothing to do with her specialty, between those flirting with her braided hair and those whose name reminded her of Marrakesh. One of them even offered to come and visit her at her workplace, while another offered a training opportunity, which turned out to be just a bait to convince her to work in the field of prostitution.

But her biggest shock was a message she received in her email in which her face was superimposed on pornographic content.

“The only place where I posted my email was LinkedIn because I was looking for training,” says Iman, who summarizes her experience with the famous platform with these words: “On LinkedIn, I did not find training opportunities, but rather monsters... men twice my age who occupy the most prestigious positions.” ".

Only now did Iman realize that she could file a harassment report.

According to the Feminist Society for Combating Electronic Harassment, 73% of women whose opinions were polled do not know the deterrent measures to which those who engage in electronic harassment may be exposed.

Many victims of harassment end up quitting posting on LinkedIn, like Polly, a media student who is only slightly active on the platform because of a bad experience.

She says, "If someone sends a message to thank me for being part of his network, I do not respond to him. Before sending a message, I check the account."

Dating app
But this instinct of extreme caution inevitably harms professional life, according to Soria Ben Amroush, as “this behavior adds a large amount of information that the user needs to process instead of focusing on her professional career.”

Marjorie, another student who just graduated, has been searching for months on LinkedIn for a job as an aircraft engineer, but all she has found is harassment under the guise of job offers.

Marjorie could not help but agree with the comparison of LinkedIn to a dating application. “This tool was created to facilitate communication in the corporate world... It is already difficult for a person to survive in the professional environment as it is, so what if he also has to be suspicious of everyone?”

Iman Bounouh agrees with her words, saying, “When we join a dating platform, we acknowledge that we are seeking a romantic relationship...but on LinkedIn, we acknowledge our desire to develop our professional network. Romantic relationships may have arisen on the platform, but how much is their percentage compared to the number of women and even minors who received messages? "They did not want to receive it at all."

Source: French press