LinkedIn is removing “hibernated” and “restricted” accounts from the connection and follower counts of all members in order to provide more reliable engagement and reach insights. The platform has added new Help documentation explaining the change, which will be ongoing. Accounts that become active again will be re-included in the connection and follower counts they were previously a part of, but members who have reached the 30,000 connection limit will not see their lists grow unless they remove current connections first. Ultimately, filtering out inactive accounts could potentially help users with large audiences to connect with active users, making more engagement and visibility possible.

source: LinkedIn starts filtering connection, follower counts