Medieval China blocks LinkedIn for Jasmine Revolution heresy

China has blocked yet another social networking site in its country. This time it was LinkedIn. The move is tied to Chinese government efforts to suppress mention of a "Jasmine Revolution" on the Internet.

Starting Friday morning the site is inaccessible from Beijing reporting an error message. Meantime, LinkedIn confirmed that the site has been blocked for some users in the country.

"This appears to be part of a broader effort in China going on right now, involving other sites as well," said Hani Durzy, a Linkedin spokesman.

The term "Jasmine Revolution" refers to the pro-democratic movement that began in Tunisia last December and spread to other Middle Eastern countries.

Last week calls on the Internet to stage the same Jasmine Revolution in China started appearing.

However, Chinese censors, the number of which exceeds military forces of some states, were quick to stop the spreading of such “heresies”. This past weekend, the term "Jasmine Revolution" was blocked in searches on Chinese microblog sites. Users were also barred from posting information using the term on Chinese social networking sites like Renren.com.

Mention of the Jasmine Revolution has also begun appearing on LinkedIn. One user with the screen name "Jasmine Z" expressed their opinion on the potential for revolution in China via posts on the site.

"Whoever was trying to do this thought LinkedIn would be a good way to get into China," said Bill Bishop, an independent analyst who watches the China IT market. But the government was quick to catch on and blocked the site, he added.