LinkedIn service returns after China outage

Popular business web site LinkedIn appears to have returned online in China one day after it was initially blocked by authorities in the country.

The site appeared to be taken offline on Friday as the authorities sort to censor possible anti-government discussions on the site that talked about a "Jasmine Revolution", the phrase used to describe anti-government protests in the Middle East.

However, it appears that now the site is back online with people in China reporting that they can now access their profiles.

In a brief statement, LinkedIn said: "We can confirm that the LinkedIn service was blocked for some in China for a short time last week, but we are now seeing indications that access to the LinkedIn service has been restored in China. We will continue to monitor the situation."

LinkedIn is a relatively small site in the Chinese market but the government's immediate clamp down over such a discussion point underlines just how closely the Chinese government controls internet content.

More popular website such as Facebook and Twitter are both barred all the time and certain search terms are removed from search engines in order to stop information being read by the public.

China's close control of the internet is having an adverse affect on some of its major firms, though, with mobile network giant Huawei treated with suspicion in the US due to fears it has links with the government.

The firm has repeatedly denied this but it has lost out on several deals in the country over these fears.