Photo credit: Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg

A few days after the results of the Venezuelan elections, a Domain Name System (DNS) ban was detected on Binance, a crypto exchange, affecting the operations of its website and mobile applications in Venezuela. 

An organization that helps users bypass blocks and censorship, VE sin Filtro, reported on Aug. 10 at 7:12 a.m. Dubai time that the crash was observed nine hours earlier. Apart from Binance, several company websites were also banned by the Venezuelan government.  

On Aug. 12 at 12:55 a.m. Dubai time, VE sin Filtro noticed that AWS CloudFront, Amazon’s content delivery network (CDN) service, was blocked by the state-run telephone and internet service provider in Venezuela, CANTV.

Upon further analysis, VE sin Filtro reported that the DNS block has affected all “.cloudfront∙net” subdomains. Since CloudFront is one of the leaders in the CDN market and is used by several high-traffic sites and platforms, the local anti-censorship organization claimed that this is one of the reasons that affected online service providers’ operations such as Disney+, Max, and, possibly, Binance. 

Responding to the DNS ban, the official X account of Binance Latin America stated: 

“Like several websites of companies from different segments in Venezuela, including social networks, Binance pages have been facing access restrictions. We want to assure you that your funds are SAFU under our robust security protocols.”  

The Binance Latin American team also promised that they are “monitoring the situation closely to address it in the best and quickest way possible.”

The Venezuelan presidential election dispute began on July 30, after Nicolas Maduro and Edmundo Gonzalez each claimed victory. Although the country’s electoral authority declared that Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote, multiple exit polls pointed to an opposition win, as reported by Reuters.