"Linkedin is not a dating site": the anger of women in the face of displaced messages

"Hello CV too beautiful", "Are you beautiful, can we be tuned?"," You are very pretty spend a good day "," Enchant I am free for us to get to know it "...After yet another inappropriate message, Chloé had enough.Fifteen days ago, the young business school decided to post her "rant" on LinkedIn."I receive more and more private messages that have absolutely nothing to do with professional content," she wrote then."Do you seriously think that is an appropriate behavior?"And even worse, do you find it normal to send this kind of message to someone who is 20 years younger than you?[…] To the good understanding ”.

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Quickly, his post circulates on the professional network, and finds a large echo.To date, it has 15 410 I love and 560 comments."I know I'm not the only one who happened," said Chloé by phone."I also speak for all these girls.There are plenty that thanked me following this, by message, in comment, saying to me: "Thank you, I will not have dared..."" ".Others, like her, testify to their bad experience on LinkedIn:

« Ça m’a quand même découragée dans mes recherches»»

Certain approaches are more difficult to detect, at least initially.Lezia, 21, student in the second year of DUT industrial logistics and organization, paid the price.A man contacted her on LinkedIn by message, when she was looking for an internship."First, he asks me questions about my studies, but quickly he also questions me about my private life," recalls the young woman."I told him that LinkedIn was not a dating site".Registered since September 2020, Lezia was also asked by three different men on WhatsApp."When I asked them how they had my number, they replied that they had found it on CV, available on my LinkedIn profile," added Lezia.One two says he occupies the position of quality manager, another calls him several times."At that time, I really wonder what is happening," recalls the student.It still discouraged me in my research at the beginning.Linkedin is frequented by people who can be considered as models of success.When a 40, 50 -year -old man calls you baby, is insistent, it is disturbing ".

For Cynthia too, messages have not stopped in Linkedin.After an exchange with a man on the professional platform, to which she cuts short, the latter challenges her on Facebook."He contacted me on Facebook because I did not answer him," says this 26-year-old self-entrepreneur."Then he returned to LinkedIn because I blocked him on Facebook and reproached me.I made him understand that it was moved.I have the impression that he looked for me everywhere on the internet, it made me freak out anyway ".

« À LinkedIn de jouer les modérateurs»»

Unpleasant, invasive, even disturbing, these behaviors are mostly not condemned by justice."On the criminal level, there is not much to do," analyzes Nathalie Leroy, lawyer specializing in questions of sexual harassment, moral harassment, woman-man discrimination and sexism in business."Openly, there is no sexual connotation".Certain approaches could be "moral harassment, sexual harassment or sexist outrage," said Nathalie Leroy."But you still have to have all the elements that prove it.[…] I think it is in LinkedIn to play the moderators, and to recall the rules of use of their platform ".

Contacted, the representatives of LinkedIn France ensure that they are vigilant on the issue.Abusive behavior can be reported, and their authors, blocked: "We apply ourselves to ensuring that LinkedIn is a safe space for women and we do not tolerate any form of sexism or harassment", they say by email.“Our teams are continuously taking into account the comments of our female members in order to provide them with secure experience.We have also added reminders to ensure that conversations remain professional in posts, messages and comments.[…] In addition, a more transparent reporting procedure has been integrated to ensure our members a follow -up following the reports they transmit to us ".

The platform has every interest in taking into account the complaints of these users, who, without this, could turn away from the network."It's boring at the end," said Béatrice*, 53, teacher in languages."For a while I stopped coming to LinkedIn.When I went there, I avoided commenting, I had the impression that there were predators on the lookout for the slightest pleasant face.»»

*The first name has been changed.