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An advocacy group is pressing LinkedIn after the social media company used their “Diversity in Recruiting” (“DIR”) feature to “diversify the pool of candidates shown to recruiters.”
The Equal Protection project of the Legal Insurrection Foundation (EPP) is calling on the career social media company to change their policies and allow a “manipulated pool of candidates”.
This photo illustration shows the LinkedIn logo on a smartphone on March 10, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. (Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
The call for change follows last week’s decision by the US Supreme Court to dismantle affirmative action practices in college admissions
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“The Supreme Court recently ruled that universities ‘should never use race as a stereotype or negative,’ and that a ‘student should be treated on the basis of his or her experience as an individual – not on the basis of race,'” Bill Jacobson, president of the EVP, told Fox News Digital.
LinkedIn’s demographic filtering to manipulate pools of applicants to achieve diversity violates these principles, Jacobson continued.
According to LinkedIn, the social media site’s DIR feature uses the candidate’s race, sexual orientation and gender to “survey qualified members” to “diversify the pool of candidates shown to recruiters… from companies who have made a public commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
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While users can opt out of the DIR feature, LinkedIn uses the feature to help recruiters find a “more diverse pool of qualified candidates.”
“Some people are promoted to potential employers based on the candidates’ protected status, which violates LinkedIn’s own non-discrimination rules,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital. “Worse, candidates may never know how they’ve been treated in this filtering system based on their protected status, and it’s not even clear whether recruiters/employers are aware that they’re receiving a manipulated pool of candidates.”
LinkedIn launches 24 hours stories, following the lead of other social networks Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. (Lorenzo Di Cola/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a prospective employee is protected from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, and sex under the candidates’ protected status.
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“It’s no excuse that some candidates choose to have their demographics used,” Jacobson added. “LinkedIn asking candidates to agree to a discriminatory system does not excuse the discriminatory system.”
“LinkedIn asking candidates to agree to a discriminatory system does not excuse the discriminatory system.”
The Equal Protection Project alleged that LinkedIn’s algorithm favors diverse candidates while discriminating against candidates who choose not to disclose protected status information or candidates who do not meet diversity requirements.
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“LinkedIn’s DIR program is particularly damaging because it builds racial and other protected status classifications into the hiring process through demographic filtering and promotion,” Jacobson said. “This built-in discrimination works in the background through algorithms on the LinkedIn hub connecting candidates with recruiters/employers to influence the entire LinkedIn-related hiring process.”
LinkedIn logo seen at the entrance to LinkedIn EMEA Head Office in Dublin, Ireland. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Since The Equal Protection Project’s initial letter to LinkedIn, the social media company has added a sentence stating that its “recruiting products do not have filters that allow our customers to filter candidates based on sensitive or proprietary categories of personal demographics (including race/ethnicity , gender, having a disability, sexual orientation or transgender status).”
“Algorithm discrimination is still discrimination.”
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“Algorithm discrimination is still discrimination and LinkedIn needs to stop,” Jacobson said.
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a writer on Fox News Digital’s breaking news team. You can reach her on Twitter at @s_rumpfwhiteten.
