LinkedIn Bans Prostitutes: Site Bars Users From Promoting ‘Unlawful’ Escort Services

LinkedIn is barring one of the world’s oldest professions.

In an update the professional networking site’s user agreement, LinkedIn announced that it will ban profiles that “provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution,” Business Insider reports.

"In the old [user agreement], we had it covered by saying that one could not use a profile to promote anything 'unlawful,'" a LinkedIn representative told Mashable. "However, in some countries, that activity actually is lawful."

ReadWrite points out that if members search for “escorts,” LinkedIn’s algorithm prompts users for terms like “female escorts,” “call girls” and “hot girls.”

The site shows one job-seeker who lists herself as an “escort” from San Diego, Calif., that specializes in “ALL NUDE, full-body massage services.”

Regardless of whether or not the practice is legal, some of the site’s 200 million users have listed prostitution as a skill. Most belong to anti-trafficking groups, law offices and ministries.

Prostitution isn’t the only illicit LinkedIn skill.

Related skill searches include manslaughter, driving under the influence, and rape.

Prostitution is legal in most South American countries, European countries and parts of Australia, MSN reports. In the United States, brothels are legal in 11 Nevada counties.