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The Street
The Street
Rob Lenihan

LinkedIn Is Solving a Problem Twitter Users Hate

Got a minute? 

Great, because in the last 60 seconds eight people were hired on LinkedIn.

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The online networking platform, which was acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in 2016, is marking its 20th anniversary this year after being on May 5, 2003.

Sixty-one million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs each week, according to the company's website, and the network has 930 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

With that many people using the site, security is a top issue and scam artists try to reel in victims.

LinkedIn's latest transparency report revealed a surge in scam accounts. The company blocked more than 58 million accounts, between July and December 2022, up from 22 million in the previous six months.

Some of the common scams include fake job offers, illegitimate contact requests, and phishing and whaling ploys.

Last month LinkedIn previewed new verification features that will allow users to confirm their name and employer. Now the company has begun rolling these features out, according to Engadget

The company partnered with Clear, which operates biometric travel document verification system at some major airports and stadiums.

Providing Authenticity Signals 

"Having verified information helps provide authenticity signals to others that you’re who you say you are," LinkedIn said in a blogpost

"Seeing verified information on others’ profiles helps foster a trusted community so you can make more informed decisions around connecting with other professionals. company," the company added.

The job postings verification tool displays information about the posters and their companies.

LinkedIn launched the About This Profile feature to show when a profile was created and last updated, and whether it has a verified phone number and/or work email associated with the account.

Users will also be alerted if messages on LinkedIn include high-risk content that could have an impact on their security.

"If something doesn’t feel right, these warnings will also give you the choice to report the content without letting the sender know," the company wrote.

Verifying with Clear is free but requires sharing a U.S. phone number and government ID. People can also confirm their employer through a verification code sent to the company email address.

Some users can verify both their identity and employer via Microsoft Entra, for companies enrolled in the program.

LinkedIn said that "we may expand ID verification globally and add more verification partners in the future."

Earlier this year, LinkedIn said it had added generative artificial intelligence (AI), similar to ChatGPT, to its profile-building tools.

This is the latest move a social media company is making to try and verify users are who they say they are. Now that users on Twitter, for example, can pay for a blue checkmark and pretend to be someone they are not, the need for verification and online trust is growing more than it ever has before.

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