LinkedIn announced on Thursday that it will begin
considering a wider range of newsworthy content, updating its “Professional Community Policies” to provide more clarity about the limited cases in which the company would allow graphic or
potentially disturbing content if it is of “public importance.”
“LinkedIn is a place for safe, trusted, and professional content,” the Microsoft-owned company wrote in a
blog post. “There are rare times, however, when content that violates our policies is educational or newsworthy enough that keeping it on the platform is in the public interest.”
The B2B-centric social network provided examples of questionable newsworthy content that could warrant being shown on the feed, including “medical procedures performed by a surgeon or
real-world images of war.”
advertisement
advertisement
The company’s updated guidelines are specific about which kinds of material would remain off limits. This includes excessively gruesome or shocking
content that is “sadistic or gratuitously graphic,” such as depictions of a bodily injury and severe physical or sexual violence.
To decide upon whether a piece of troubling
content is newsworthy, LinkedIn's statement explains a “careful review” balancing the potential harm of leaving the content in question on the platform against the potential value it would
serve LinkedIn members and the public.
<p">“Factors we consider include educational value, relationship to major events of the day, the speaker or content author, and whether it
concerns matters of public importance,” the company adds. “When newsworthy content might be graphic or disturbing, we will include a warning screen.”
The decision comes as video
consumption on LinkedIn is up more than 36% year-over-year, with video
creation growing 100%.
According to the company's
recent
performance report, video uploads have continued to increase, seeing double-digit growth over the past three quarters.