Vague Reasons Lead To OKX Website Blocked in Russia

• Reports from Roskomsvoboda, a non government agency that tracks down online censorship in Russia revealed that crypto exchange OKX website was blacklisted and blocked on Wednesday.
• Reasons behind the blacklisting remain a baffle as neither the agency nor the crypto exchange issue out any comments concerning the closure.

Wednesday saw Seychelles based crypto exchange OKX website joining the Roskomsvoboda’s registry of blacklisted websites. Roskomsvoboda, a non government agency that tracks down online censorship told a local news outlet that the closure was courtesy of the Prosecutor General’s Office for the dissemination of unreliable socially significant information of a financial nature.

According to Artem Kozlyuk, founder of Roskomsvoboda, it is only by suing Roskomsvoboda, that owners of the blocked websites can get incites as to why they were blocked. Additionally, Website hosting services which are responsible for blocking blacklisted websites only no the facts leading to the black listing.

Reasons behind the blacklisting remain a baffle as neither the agency nor the crypto exchange issue out any comments concerning the closure. The closure follows after the China founded crypto exchange dismissed South Korea’s  request to freeze accounts linked to Notorious Terra Boss Do Kwon.

Dilemma on the Accessibility of the Website

Questions have risen among OKX users as various local news outlets reported differently.

Speaking to a local news outlet RBC, Roskomsvoboda said that the largest crypto exchange by trading volume issuued information related to activities of financial pyramids. The agency also added that OKX broadcasted information about the provision of financial services by persons not entitled to provide them. Although the website is blocked in Russia, it remains freely accessible through a VPN.

“The site published information related to the activities of financial pyramids, as well as information about the provision of financial services by persons not entitled to provide them in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation,”

Adressing OKX russian users, the administrators of the OKX community in Discord stated that they are still issuing full service to russian users despite the block. Additionally,

We do not recommend using a VPN when accessing OKX, as it will trigger our risk controls and may lead to the blocking of the account,” added a representative of the exchange’s helpdesk in a comment to ForkLog.

OKX is not the first to be blacklisted by Russia, September 2022 saw Binance blocked in Russia but in Jan 2021 the ban was lifted under the mercies of a regional court which reverted Roskomnadzor’s decision. In aadddition to the list of blacklisted websites in Russia, six crypto news websites were blocked with only one surviving under the rule of a  district court decision, although it remained on the agency’s blacklist.