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How to Block Someone on LinkedIn (2023)

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t get bombarded by spam or inappropriate content on the world’s leading professional social network platform.

As for this world, you’re here because you want to know how to block someone on Linkedin.

Thankfully, it’s fairly straightforward, but we’ll explain how it works and what happens when you block someone.

LinkedIn is a place where we should all feel safe. So, we’ll also help walk you through managing privacy settings effectively and dealing with spammy marketing messages.

Understanding the LinkedIn Block Function

There are various reasons why you might need to block people on LinkedIn. One common reason is receiving unwanted messages or connection requests from unknown users, often associated with spammy marketing activities. Any of these might be a good reason to block someone:

Privacy concerns
Harassment
Inappropriate messages or content
Personal reasons

What Happens When You Block Someone?

Blocking someone means that the blocked user will no longer be able to see anything related to your profile. This includes sending you messages, viewing your profile, and anything you post, share, comment on, etc. Likewise, this leaves the blocked user completely invisible on your end in the same aspects.

Blocking Someone on the LinkedIn Mobile App

So, the actual process of blocking someone is simple, whether on desktop or mobile.

How to Block Someone On Desktop

As per the official instructions on the LinkedIn site, here’s how to block someone:

Go to the profile of the person you’d like to block.
Click the More… button below the member’s profile picture and select Report/Block from the list.
Select Block [member name] from the What do you want to do? pop-up menu.
Click Block to proceed or Go back to review your options.

And that’s it. Now this person is blocked and you no longer have to worry about them

How to Block Someone on Mobile

The mobile approach is pretty similar:

Go to the profile of the person you’d like to block.
Tap the More icon in the top right of the screen.
Tap Report/Block from the dropdown menu.
Tap Block [member’s name].
In the confirmation pop-up window, tap Block.

Note: This feature does not extend beyond individual profiles, which means companies cannot be blocked via LinkedIn or the LinkedIn app just yet.

Unblocking Someone on LinkedIn

We recognize that this is probably a rare occurrence, but the LinkedIn website does explain that the blocking process is reversible, should you decide to change your mind in the future.

The only thing to note about this is that, once unblocked, if you decide to re-block them, there is a 48-hour waiting period. This is a safeguard put into place by LinkedIn itself.

Unblocking on LinkedIn

The unblocking process is simple, as well, and it looks like this on desktop (and mobile):

Click the Me icon at top of your LinkedIn homepage (or click your profile photo in the app)
Select Settings & Privacy.
In the Visibility section, select Visibility of your LinkedIn activity.
Click Blocking and select Change.
From your blocked list, find the person’s name and click Unblock.

Managing Profile Privacy and Visibility on LinkedIn

When it comes to professional networking, privacy is paramount. That’s why LinkedIn gives you the ability to control who sees your profile or certain parts of it.

Controlling Who Sees Your Activity

Let’s start with managing visibility for your updates and activity. You can choose whether everyone, only your connections, or no one at all gets to see when you make changes on LinkedIn.

To do this: go into ‘Settings & Privacy’ > ‘Visibility’ > then under the ‘Profile viewing options’, click change and select who can see your activity feed from the drop-down menu.

You may also want to hide that shiny new job role until everything’s set in stone – we get that. To manage these settings, navigate again through ‘Settings & Privacy,’ but this time head over to ‘Share job changes’. It’s here where you’ll be able to pick if these updates are shared automatically with your network.

This allows us professionals some breathing room before getting bombarded by well-wishers (or not so much) once something significant happens professionally.

How to Turn Off Invitations to Follow Pages, Newsletters, and Events

I don’t know about you, but we get swamped with invites from existing connections (a more recent feature) to events, newsletters, and events. There is a way to disable receiving these, so we’ll show you how to do that on desktop and mobile.

Desktop:

Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage
Click “Settings and Privacy” in the dropdown
Go to Data Privacy on the left panel
Under “Who can reach you,” choose “Invitations from your network.”
Use the sliders to turn these invites on or off

Mobile:

Tap your profile photo in the app
Tap “Settings”
Tap “Data Privacy”
Under “Who can reach you,” tap “Invitations from your network.”
Use the sliders to turn these invites on or off

There you go – feel free to explore these settings to tailor your LinkedIn experience to one you enjoy so that you can make the most of the platform.

Conclusion

Our interactions on online platforms like LinkedIn should only be positive experiences where we can grow professionally without feeling overwhelmed by unwanted communication attempts or content. That’s why understanding these features thoroughly is the key to maintaining one’s digital sanity in today’s interconnected world.

Once again, you deserve to be in a safe, stress-free environment while you’re on LinkedIn. Take advantage of the features LinkedIn offers, and you’ll be that much closer to enjoying an experience that’s in your control.