ASTANA -- LiveJournal, a social-networking service, has been allowed to resume its operations in Kazakhstan more than four years after it was officially blocked in the country for allegedly serving as a platform for disseminating terrorist and extremist writing.
The Kazakh Ministry of Investments and Development said on November 11 that the social-networking service -- where Internet users can keep a blog, journal, or online diary -- was allowed to resume its activities in the country after its owners removed all materials that had been under question.
On August 20, 2011, a court in Astana issued a ruling on blocking LiveJournal's operations in Kazakhstan due to materials that the court found "propagating terrorism and extremism."
Created in 1999 in the United States, LiveJournal was gradually taken over by the Russian media company SUP Media, which moved the social network's development and design functions to Russia by 2009.
