Tron’s Justin Sun and Binance’s Yi He blocked on Weibo

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Two prominent cryptocurrency executives have had their accounts on Chinese social network Weibo banned, due to alleged violations of community rules.

According to reports, Justin Sun, founder of TRON, woke up to notifications that his account had been banned Thursday. A similar fate awaited Yi He, co-founder of crypto exchange Binance. Their profiles on the network now read “the account has been blocked due to violations of laws and regulations and the relevant provisions of the Weibo Community Convention.”

The profiles can no longer be searched for on the platform, and all content that was on the pages have been removed. The action comes after the TRON founder had actively engaged with supporters of the blockchain on the social network.

The ban is not the first time crypto accounts belonging to the firms and their executives have been shut down. In November, Weibo closed the main account of Binance and the TRON Foundation, though Binance set up a new page shortly thereafter. The new account remains active at press time.

Despite the bans, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao remains an active user of the site, as do the founders of the Huobi and OKCoin exchanges.

Allegations have emerged that the bans could be politically motivated, at the insistence of the Chinese government. According to online reports, Sun’s account ban in particular follows pressure from authorities in China to cancel a charity event, which he did not comply with.

The government has previously stated that while it is supportive of blockchain technology and the benefits it can bring to enterprise use cases, they are vehemently opposed to cryptocurrency. This is despite moves from the People’s Bank of China to develop a state backed digital currency, which commentators have suggested could ultimately replace local fiat currency.

The bans are the latest confirmation of the Chinese opposition to the blockchain industry. Whether the bans are political remains uncertain, though for the time being at least, both executives are excluded from the platform.