Et tu, LinkedIn?

CYBERSPACE—Yeah, it was too good to last. Escorts and prostitute profiles are no longer welcomed on LinkedIn. Owen Thomas on ReadWrite.com noticed the new policy while skimming through changes the social network recently made to its privacy policy and user agreement. Most were language clarifications, he said, but this one caught his eye. Among the activities listed under "don't undertake" is the following: i. Even if it is legal where you are located, create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution. LinkedIn, you see, has always recognized a vast spectrum of professions and skills, including ones that involve sex work where it is legal. As Thomas notes, practitioners have been using the network for years. “On a site where every action you take is tied to your professional identity,” he writes, “would anyone really take the risk of advertising adult services? Apparently, yes. Prostitution, in fact, is a skill for which you can get endorsed on LinkedIn. (Many self-identified experts on the topic work in law enforcement or religious ministries, suggesting that their experience is with catching or counseling offenders rather than offering such services.) “Judging by the suggestions LinkedIn's search algorithm offers,” he adds, “LinkedIn members are actively looking for this kind of professional help. Search on ‘escorts,’ for example, and LinkedIn will prompt you to search instead for the following terms: • Female escorts • Independent escorts • Call girls • Hot girls • Adult entertainment • Escort services • Dubai escorts” Promoting “unlawful” services has always been prohibited by the network, but the fact that prostitution is not illegal everywhere has allowed wriggle room for many sex workers, and more than a few promoted themselves in locations where it was not legal. The clarification of the policy might mean that some of them were not as subtle as the network would have preferred. Unfortunately, however, the change in policy also penalizes legal sex workers, some of whom are already speaking out. “What’s the problem?” complained longtime Nevada brothel owner Dennis Hof in an interview Monday with NBC. “We have a license to do this stuff. Our business is legal as theirs. We’re the good guys. We have no reason to be knocked off.” The Moonlite Bunny Ranch operator said he hopes none of the profiles of his employees are removed by LinkedIn, not least because so many of them rely on it to generate business. “LinkedIn needs to realize they don’t need to filter out legal businesses in America,” he said. “These are businesswomen, and some of them are making mid-six-figure incomes. If it’s okay to do that, is it okay to drop Dairy Queen too because it serves too much fat and calories?” For its part, LinkedIn doesn’t seem to quite know how it’s going to respond to the concerns. “I’m not saying we’re going to do a purge, though we very well may,” Hani Durzy, LinkedIn’s director of corporate communications, told NBC. “In a nutshell, as we become aware of profiles that violate our policies we will take the appropriate actions. Does that mean shutting them down on day one? Or giving our members the benefit of the doubt, and telling them that’s a violation and you’ve got to change it? There is no hard and fast rule.” Good to know.