The public should rightly have the right to know about all such things and to challenge errors.

For example, what’s to stop someone from creating a Linkedin account under any particular name, and putting in an employment history for the sole purpose of giving references? Maybe for yourself, or maybe to damage someone you dislike?

Linkedin does nothing to check your ID, to determine you are whom you say you are, or even whether you worked at a particular firm at any particular time. And they don’t have the ability to do so. Nor should they.

If a person were to create such a wholly or partially false persona, well, that’s one thing.

If through a paid tool the Linkedin company makes available or even touts as useful these possibly false references, which are then given credibility, shouldn’t there be recourse? Doesn’t someone bear responsibility? What if a tort were to occur?

Someone should be responsible, and it should not come down to an email address at a free email provider somewhere, and we don’t know any more.

I don’t know the answer. I would say Linkedin contains the information it’s users want it to contain, and you rely on it at your peril. But when Linkedin creates and markets that data as accurate or useful, there should be recourse should there be any issues, and that will need to be addressed.