50% of ‘Apple staff’ accounts removed from LinkedIn in single day, here’s how

The number of LinkedIn accounts that claim to be Apple employees was reduced by half in a single day. Wonder how? Thanks to LinkedIn’s renewed efforts to kick bots from the professional networking platform. According to a report in Apple Insider, these accounts used profile descriptions and images that were edited or forged and taken from actual employees.

Incidentally, the fake profile problem is not new on LinkedIn. Fraudulent behaviour has been on the rise with fake accounts claiming to be members of groups they were not. A research revealed that the fake account and bot problem is so widespread that large companies reported their staff counts were considerably reduced. In this case, in only one day, Apple’s LinkedIn account count decreased from 576,562 to 284,991. Also, Apple’s LinkedIn profile currently shows 281,213 active employee accounts. Apple’s website reportedly describing diversity initiatives has a lower non-specific figure sourced from 2021 — “more than 165, 000 talented employees.”