{"id":1458,"date":"2022-03-14T17:26:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T09:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2022-03-14T17:26:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T09:26:49","slug":"opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week. Over the past couple days,\u00a0OpenSea, one of the main NFT marketplaces, has been deleting the accounts of users and collectors from Iran, a country that is currently under sanctions from the U.S., with no prior warning or explanation.<\/p>\n

Iranian artist Arefeh Norouzii noticed her account had been deplatformed yesterday when one of her followers told her that they had realized that her OpenSea profile was no longer active. Norouzii went to check and also found nothing there\u2014her\u00a0NFTs<\/a>\u00a0had vanished. While Norouzii can mint them again and sell them on other NFT platforms that have are not currently adhering to the U.S. sanctions, OpenSea is the biggest NFT platform, and selling her work on the site has constituted a large part of her income.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest I\u2019ve been crying all day,\u201d Norouzii wrote in a direct message. \u201cPeople told me not to worry and gave me hope that this is just a bug. It can\u2019t be a bug, it\u2019s centralization.\u201d Previously, she had sold physical versions of art, but NFTs had changed her life and allowed her to transition to making art full time. Now, she\u2019s uncertain of what the future holds.<\/p>\n

Previously, it was thought that the sanctions had only targeted users whose IP addresses pointed to locations within Iran, and several users suggested that blocked users could just use a VPN, which would mask their true location. However, it soon came out that several Iranian artists who live and work outside Iran were also included in the recent deplatforming, simply because they hold Iranian passports. Parin Heidari, an NFT artist who was\u00a0highlighted<\/a>\u00a0by OpenSea as an \u201camazing women in the space\u201d has been living outside of Iran for the past 13 years, and still found her account terminated.<\/p>\n

In a tweet on March 3, OpenSea\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re a US-based company and comply with US sanctions law, meaning we\u2019re required to block people in places on the US sanctions lists from using OpenSea.\u201d That statement did not explain how broadly it would apply its interpretation of who would qualify as being sanctioned under U.S. law.<\/p>\n

When asked for further comment, an OpenSea spokesperson shared the following statement with\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>: \u201cOpenSea blocks users and territories on the U.S. sanctions list from using our services\u2014including buying, selling, or transferring NFTs on OpenSea\u2014and our Terms of Service explicitly prohibit sanctioned users or users in sanctioned territories from using our services. We have a zero tolerance policy for the use of our services by sanctioned individuals or entities and people located in sanctioned countries. If we find individuals to be in violation of our sanctions policy, we take swift action to ban the associated accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

This recent wave of deplatforming by OpenSea comes amid increasing global tensions in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, which has caused numerous countries around the world to amplify their sanctions on oligarchs with close ties to Vladimir Putin. Yet it\u2019s unclear why Iranian users, and not other countries on the U.S. sanctions list, were specifically targeted.<\/p>\n

The deplatforming has been greatly distressing to members of the NFT and crypto community. \u201cNo one wants to see artists caught between governments and politics,\u201d said Farokh Sarmad, founder of the Web3 media company Rug Radio. \u201cThis is why we need true decentralization.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Twitter, Sarmad has been using his large following to engender discussion on recent events and create support systems for affected artists. \u201cWe know OpenSea was forced to do this and sadly I won\u2019t be surprised if more platforms are forced to comply,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the NFT space has a lot of money and smart people, I\u2019m sure we can figure this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others have made the decision to stop using OpenSea in a show of solidarity. \u201cI really can\u2019t justify opensea\u2019s decision now,\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0NFT influencer Mondoir on Twitter. \u201cThey profited from everyone including those people who are now blocked from accessing the platform to become a multi billion dollar company. Their profit came from these very same people. This is not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week. Over the past couple days,\u00a0OpenSea, one of the main NFT marketplaces, has been deleting the accounts of users and collectors from Iran, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nOpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019 - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019 - Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-14T09:26:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/OpenSea-Deplatforms-Iranian-Users-in-Compliance-with-U.S.-Sanctions-\u2013_-www.artnews.com_.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"862\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"557\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/\",\"name\":\"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019 - Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-14T09:26:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-14T09:26:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\"},\"description\":\"The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\",\"name\":\"Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"description\":\"Atelier Auction\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\",\"name\":\"Chloe Nicholls\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chloe Nicholls\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019 - Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019 - Investable Art Auctioneer","og_description":"The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/","og_site_name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","article_published_time":"2022-03-14T09:26:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":862,"height":557,"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/OpenSea-Deplatforms-Iranian-Users-in-Compliance-with-U.S.-Sanctions-\u2013_-www.artnews.com_.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Chloe Nicholls","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chloe Nicholls","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/","name":"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019 - Investable Art Auctioneer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-03-14T09:26:49+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-14T09:26:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744"},"description":"The crypto has long been touted as a way to make business transactions outside the interference of international governments, but it became clear this week that the space has its limits this week.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/opensea-deplatforms-iranian-users-in-compliance-with-u-s-sanctions-ive-been-crying-all-day\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"OpenSea Deplatforms Iranian Users in Compliance with U.S. Sanctions: \u2018I\u2019ve Been Crying All Day\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/","name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"Atelier Auction","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744","name":"Chloe Nicholls","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chloe Nicholls"},"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1460,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions\/1460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}