February 22, 2010, Washington, D.C. – Today LinkedIn’s legal department notified PAAIA that following our request, the company would be reversing its policy of excluding Iran from their Education drop-down menu. We are grateful to our members who had originally brought this matter to our attention, and to LinkedIn for their prompt response. We hope to see Iran back on the site so that LinkedIn account holders who hold academic degrees from Iran may include that information in their profile.

A word on the background: According to LinkedIn, the company’s decision to exclude Iran had been based on a U.S. economic sanctions law that prohibits companies from engaging in certain transactions with Iran. 

PAAIA contacted legal counsel and representatives from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the U.S. Department of Treasury to seek clarification on this matter. We shared our conclusions with LinkedIn, which is that the U.S. code does not in fact warrant their current policy, while excluding Iran adversely affects the Iranian American community. We now look forward to seeing the outcome of our conversation.