Why does LinkedIn block accounts? — the CleverStaff experiment
Why does LinkedIn block accounts and how to avoid it? CleverStaff programmers tried to understand the issue.
CS technical support have received several complaints from the service users about their LinkedIn accounts being blocked. Our software developers conducted an experiment to find out why this has happened and how the social network’s algorithms work.
LinkedIn sends the standard message before blocking the account. It points out that the reason is any “automation tools” been used.
CleverStaff experts have explored the ways one can “earn” the account blocking by LinkedIn.
Here’s what they did:
- Created a brand new account.
- Signed in to LinkedIn in an incognito mode (without plug-ins).
- Created and launched the special script which simulated transitions to the pages of candidates.
- Set the frequency of transitions — every 5 seconds.
CleverStaff programmers have repeated the experiment three times.
The first time the account was blocked after a few hours of simulation. At the same time 510 profiles of candidates were opened before blocking.
The second time the script worked all night and opened 5 thousand profiles of candidates. In the morning the account was still active.
The third time the script was opened in two tabs simultaneously. Account lockout occurred after 32 seconds.
Analyzing the results of the experiment, we made the following conclusions:
- LinkedIn algorithms are monitoring all activity of its accounts. The more actively you use the social network, the more chances that its algorithms will mistake you for an automation tool.
- The more tabs are open — the higher is the risk of being blocked.
- LinkedIn can block an account without using plug-ins.
LinkedIn blocking algorithms are complex and ambiguous. Team CleverStaff have managed to find out only some general tendencies. We assume that in addition to the automatic blocking algorithms, there are LinkedIn staff doing lockages manually though. It happens irregularly and massively, based on different selections according to the users activity.
Your friends @CleverStaff