Chinese Internet Services Are Censoring Binance, Huobi and OKEx-Related Keywords

The move comes as officials in mainland China have upped the pressure on crypto mining and trading.

AccessTimeIconJun 9, 2021 at 12:32 p.m. UTC
Updated Aug 21, 2021 at 7:21 p.m. UTC

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Major internet services in China including Baidu, Weibo, Zhihu and Sogo appear to have started censoring keywords associated with crypto exchanges catering to Chinese traders and investors.

The censorship of keywords associated with Binance, Huobi and OKEx by the popular internet services comes after government officials in mainland China recently started putting pressure on crypto mining and trading.

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  • At press time, searching either the Chinese or English names of Binance, Huobi, and OKEx on Google-like Baidu, Sogo, Quora-like Zhihu or Twitter-like Weibo shows zero search results, as verified by CoinDesk.

    On Weibo, for example, its mobile app says that "according to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search results have not been displayed," when CoinDesk attempted to search Binance, Huobi and OKEx both in English and Chinese.

    A screeenshot of search results of the three exchanges, Binance, Huobi and OKEx, on Weibo.
    A screeenshot of search results of the three exchanges, Binance, Huobi and OKEx, on Weibo.

    However, Weibo accounts for crypto Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in China were still active at the time of writing, including Jay Hao, OKEx's CEO and Justin Sun, the founder of Tron.

    As CoinDesk reported previously, Weibo also blocked a large number of crypto KOLs in China in June 5.

    Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have continued to face price pressure due to rising concerns from investors and traders outside and inside China about the regulatory regime for crypto in the East Asian country.

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