When Platforms Demand Transparency but Don’t Provide It

Today, 11 March 2026, only a few minutes after creating an account for my lobbying activities and publishing an article about the poor service quality of DHL – a problem widely known in Germany – the account was immediately restricted (= blocked).

LinkedIn informed me: “Der Zugriff auf Ihr Konto wurde vorübergehend eingeschränkt. Warum? Wir setzen proaktive Maßnahmen ein, um Sie zu schützen, wenn wir möglicherweise unbefugten Zugriff oder andere Aktivitäten erkennen, die gegen unsere Richtlinien verstoßen.”

Access to your account has been temporarily restricted. Why? We take proactive measures to protect you when we detect possible unauthorized access or other activities that may violate our policies.)

We take proactive measures to protect you,” they explained. But protect me from what, exactly? The explanation provided in their message makes no sense to me.

LinkedIn clearly knows its own catalogue of rules. Yet it does not specify which rule I allegedly violated.

This situation reminds me of what happened before. The same thing occurred in 2022. At that time, I decided to delete my account rather than continue supporting a platform that blocks users without providing clear justification. That account had existed for more than two decades and included more than 1,000 contacts.

LinkedIn now asks me to identify myself. The authentication process is conducted through Persona. However, I do not agree with their terms and conditions or their privacy policy, which require me to grant extensive permission for the data from my identity document to be shared with third parties.

Large digital platforms today play a major role in professional communication and public debate. With that influence comes responsibility.

Transparency and accountability should apply not only to governments and public institutions but also to the digital platforms that increasingly shape our professional and civic spaces.

My main LinkedIn account remains active, which is why I can publish this post.