Russia’s mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has restored access to a major Russian crypto news portal. Recent proceedings at a local court meant Bits.media had to be blocked. It was not summoned.
Russian Users of Crypto News Site Bits.media Now Available as Roskomnadzor Removes It
Bits.media, the source for crypto-related news with the second-largest audience in the Russian-speaking space, has managed to win the cancellation of its blacklisting by Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media.
Roskomnadzor is the name of the Russian agency that blocked Bits.media’s access last week after adding an unknown number of pages in a list of Internet sources which disseminated information prohibited by the Russian Federation.
The measure was imposed based on a ruling by the Volzhsky District Court of the city of Saratov in a lawsuit initiated by the local prosecutor’s office in late March. The judge granted the prosecutor’s request less than a month later, after considering the case in the absence of the media outlet’s owners.
These URLs are not public, and some may belong to websites. Bits.media determined that one of these URLs was the address of its crypto-exchanger aggregator. After that, the Russian media censor permitted access to the site to be restored by Russian internet providers. Its team believe that the four other links mentioned in the provincial court’s decision are the addresses of other aggregators or cryptocurrency exchangers.
The crypto media’s management intends to bring the case to an end, however, as it insists that the address was blocked against the law. “We consider the court’s decision illegal and will seek its annulment,” said Ivan Tikhonov, founder of Bits.media. The editorial staff had decided to remove the aggregater page from Bits.media so that all other sites remain online throughout the proceedings.
In the upcoming efforts to overturn the Saratov court’s ruling, Bits.media will be supported by Digital Rights Center, a Russian law firm specializing in providing legal assistance to internet users and businesses. Its lawyers were instrumental in the deblocking of Bestchange.ru’s aggregator two years ago.
The company’s legal experts were able to prove that judicial authorities had committed violations since the circulation of cryptocurrencies was not, and is not yet, prohibited by Russia’s current legislation. The DRC has other successful cases in its portfolio, including the unblocking of the websites of the Bitcoininfo.ru portal and Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.
Recent attacks have been made on Bits.media, a Russian-language website that provides crypto-related news. Roskomnadzor blocked Forklog.com’s access in April. Forklog.com is the most prominent provider of news about crypto-related topics for the Russian-speaking community. This was just like Bits.media. There was no prior notice or explanation.
The blacklisting of Forklog came just days after the online edition’s editors condemned Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, Bits.media notes in its report. Roskomnadzor says that Forklog is still blocked in Russia. It presents information which Russia has banned from distributing.
Your thoughts about Russia’s blocking of Bits.media, Forklog and other cryptocurrency websites? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
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