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Comment by __derek__ | Hacker News Reader

A particularly easy suggestion I first heard on the Risky Biz podcast after the reporting about fake CISOs: LinkedIn should prominently display profile creation dates.

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Online dating apps do selfie verifications or identity proofing. LinkedIn could do the same as well. To verify someone's identity with a gov ID is about $1-$2 per proofing request.

https://stripe.com/identity (only as an example, many vendors offering this service)

How does the Gov ID verification work?

https://identity.stripedemos.com/

This will only create a market for old "used" accounts.

LinkedIn allows you to change your name and profile content as often as you wish, and doesn't keep or publicly expose any of a profile's past info.

"only" seems a bit harsh. It will probably solve some problems and create new ones instead, which then again need to be solved. But that's the story with any solution to a problem.

Agreed.

Better: social platforms should charge users monthly for an account.

No? I guess not. Funny to imagine though — the numbers of accounts on said platforms would collapse like the birth of a black hole. I'll bet it would be a lot more of a pleasant place to hang out though.

Why do you think people who pay money to create accounts to push their agenda will stop doing it when you tell them to cut the middleman? I bet the platform will just be 100% occupied by bots.

I'm assuming that the zero-cost (thus no barrier to entry) is part of the problem now. If everyone had to pay you would, at the very least, see a lot less bots and so no "chorus".

I disagree. From what I can see the problem is that people are receptive to propaganda on the internet, and you can’t really solve this. As long as this is the case, there will be people who can benefit from shifting public perception, and then it becomes merely a question of resources.

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