LinkedIn Blocked in China After ‘Jasmine’ Pro-Democracy Postings

[nadinbrzezinski]

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- LinkedIn Corp., operator of the largest networking site for professionals, became inaccessible in China after a user posted comments that Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution should spread to the Asian country.

The blockage of the service "appears to be part of a broader effort in China going on right now, involving other sites as well," Hani Durzy, a spokesman for Mountain View, California-based LinkedIn, said in an e-mail. The company will continue to monitor the situation, he wrote.

Since 2009, the world’s largest Internet market by users has shut out sites such as those operated by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. that don’t comply with Chinese rules to self censor information on politically sensitive subjects. A LinkedIn user identified as “Jasmine Z” last week set up a discussion group to post opinions on whether the revolutions that brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt should be brought to China.

“Often, this is done as a sort of a warning signal -- sort of a shot across the bow,” said Doug Tygar, professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. "A portion of that is symbolic.’’

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-24/linkedin-blocked-in-china-after-jasmine-pro-democracy-postings.html

If this takes root in China... oh the winds of change the winds of change...