LinkedIn is limiting its options for targeted ads. It is no longer possible to send an ad to a specific audience based on ethnicity and political affiliations.
The switch resulted from the European Digital Services Act (DSA). That legislation has restricted personal ads based on delicate personal data for several months. LinkedIn has only been complying with the legislation since Friday by disabling a tool for personalized ads.
Complaints
The social media platform took action only after a complaint about its failure to comply with the DSA was rolled into the European Commission. Bits of Freedom, a digital civil rights organization from the Netherlands, co-sponsored the complaint. This organization relied on an investigation that showed LinkedIn was violating the rules. The other parties that filed the complaint were EDRi, Global Witness, and Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrecht.
Organizations and users of online platforms are always allowed to raise possible law violations. In this case, the European Commission agreed with Bits of Freedom’s reasoning, and in March, LinkedIn was requested to adjust things.
“We have decided to adjust these tools by removing the ability to create ad audiences in Europe that use membership in LinkedIn groups as input,” Patrick Corrigan, vice president for legal and digital security at LinkedIn, put in the LinkedIn post in question.
Also read: How do you prepare for the DSA or DMA, if it applies to you?