Russia blocks Bits.media, a crypto-news site.
On 30 June, the cryptocurrency news portal Bits.media became unavailable to users of most major Russian providers due to a block by Roskomnadzor.
The agency added five unnamed pages of the site to the register of banned resources for disseminating information aimed at promoting crimes related to laundering proceeds obtained from crime.
The blocking decision was issued on the basis of a ruling by the Volzhsky District Court of Saratov dated 28 April, following a prosecutor’s claim. The case was heard by a single judge, without the owners of the blocked online resource being present.
According to Bits.media founder Ivan Tikhonov, he does not know what prompted the suit—the editors were not notified about the proceedings.
They intend to appeal the ruling.
The Bits.media editorial team found out that in one of the sealed lines of the court verdict there is the URL of the exchange-aggregator bits.media/exchanger. The page was temporarily disabled, after which Roskomnadzor allowed the hosting provider to restore access for Russian providers to the site.
As noted, Bits.media has been blocked in Russia before. In January 2015, the resource, then located at btcsec.com, was blocked without prior notice. The editorial team of the news portal challenged the decision.
In early March 2020, Roskomnadzor blocked the forum of the same name for disseminating prohibited information. In 2021, access to the forum was ordered closed by the Holosiivskyi Court in Kyiv. The blockade was later lifted.
On 11 April, Roskomnadzor restricted access to ForkLog’s website from within Russia.
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