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Access to online services such as messaging app Line and photo-sharing site Flickr was disrupted in China this week, a step that anti-censorship groups said was carried out by the government to block information about pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Reuters reporters in China were unable to send messages on Line, owned by South Korea’s Naver Corp 035420.KS, and KakaoTalk, owned by South Korean firm Kakao Corp. Both companies told Reuters they did not know the cause of the disruption or when service would return to normal. Users and Reuters reporters also could not access Yahoo Inc’s YHOO.O Flickr photo-sharing site and Microsoft Corp’s MSFT.O OneDrive cloud storage service. “This is not a technical malfunction,” said a member of China-based anti-censorship site GreatFire.org, who goes by the pseudonym of Charlie Smith.