Bits.media, a leading news outlet in Russia’s crypto space, has been blocked by Russia’s telecom and mass media watchdog, Roskomnadzor. It is no longer accessible through Russian internet providers. However, Roskomnadzor announced that the online edition will challenge the decision.
Roskomnadzor denies Russians access to bits.media
Bits.media was unavailable for most Russian users this week. Bits.media’s team determined that Roskomnadzor, the Russian media censor, is responsible. This government agency added unspecified numbers of pages to a list of Internet sources that have disseminated banned information.
The block results from a ruling by the Volzhsky District Court of the city of Saratov in a lawsuit initiated by the local prosecutor’s office on March 31. The judge granted the prosecutor’s request on April 24 after considering the case in the absence of the media outlet’s owners, Bits.media explained in a post.
According to the published decision, five URLs were targeted as they contained “information aimed at promoting crimes in the field of legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime.” It remains unclear whether only Bits.media addresses were affected and the formal reason for the measure is unknown. The platform’s founder, Ivan Tikhonov, was quoted as saying:
Although we are interested parties in this case, no one has notified us about the proceedings. We were not given any opportunity to remove the materials about which the Saratov prosecutor’s office had questions. We are strongly opposed to the verdict.
Bits.media plans to appeal the court’s decision as it has already won a similar case in the past. Russian internet regulators blocked access to the site in January 2015 due to a Nevyansk City Court decision from the Sverdov Region. The local prosecutor motivated his plea with the need to “protect an indefinite circle of persons.” Seven websites were restricted, but the ruling was overturned later that year.
Roskomnadzor also blacklisted five websites that offered information and services related cryptocurrencies in March 2020. Bits.media also was targeted. Similar to the site now, they were still accessible via VPNs and browser plug-ins in Russia.
Others operating Russian crypto-platforms have successfully challenged these decisions. A ban of 40 websites publishing cryptocurrency content was lifted by the Saint Petersburg City Court in March 2018. The following month, Russia’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling restricting access to the Bitcoininfo.ru portal. Roskomnadzor removed Bestchange.ru form its registry in May 2019. This was after prosecutors had given up trying to block the site.
Are you expecting Roskomnadzor or the Russian judiciary take similar actions regarding crypto news outlets other than their own? Comment below.
Image creditShutterstock. Pixabay. Wiki Commons. frantic00
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