- The IP addresses associated with Okx.com were banned.
- A local court barred access to the Binance exchange website in June 2021.
Roskomsvoboda, a Russian NGO keeping tabs on web censorship, reports that the OKX cryptocurrency trading website has been banned in the country. OKX is based in Seychelles. According to Roskomsvoboda’s blacklist database. The IP addresses associated with Okx.com were banned after a decision from the prosecutor general’s office (No. 73/3-105-2022). Moreover, the verdict was handed out on October 4th.
There have been no prior public remarks made by the agency about OKX. Therefore it is unclear why the company has been banned. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s internet censorship organization, also records the restriction in its official database.
Not the First Exchange
According to the Roskomnadzor register, the OKX website was taken down because it violated article 15.3 of the federal statute, Information Technologies, and Protection of Information. The article discusses extremist groups outlawed in Russia and includes information on public appeals for extremist acts.
Roskomsvoboda founder Artem Kozlyuk claims that the owners of banned websites often have no idea. Why their sites were blacklisted and must resort to legal action against Roskomnadzor in order to learn the truth. According to Kozlyuk the only publicly disclosed information on blacklisting is the number of a judgement and the article of law. Moreover, even website hosting firms, who are obligated to block blacklisted websites, only know about the fact of blacklisting.
OKX, the third biggest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, was not the first exchange to be banned in Russia. Furthermore, a local court barred access to the Binance exchange website in June 2021, citing the fact that disbursement and use of bitcoins are entirely decentralized, and there is no means for the government to control it.
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