Kremlin prepares to block Twitter and Facebook
Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal executive body responsible for media and telecommunication censorship, has begun an administrative procedure against Facebook and Twitter, which do not abide by Russia’s law on personal data.
The social networks, which are legally obligated to store users’ personal data in Russia, have not proposed any specific plans or deadlines to localize this information, Roskomnadzor director Alexander Zharov told Interfax.
According to him, the companies have one month, after which concrete actions will be taken against them by the regulator.
At present, the offenders have been fined a laughable 5,000 rubles. In future, however, the fine may be ramped up to 1% of the company’s annual profit in Russia, Zharov said on December 18.
If Facebook persists in its stance, it may completely stop operating in Russia, Roskomnadzor threatened in September 2017.
The business-related social network LinkedIn has already been blocked in Russia for non-compliance with the law on personal data. The network, with an estimated 6 million users in Russia and more than 460 million globally, was placed on Roskomnadzor’s list of offenders in November 2016.
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at the time that the Kremlin does not think that the blocking of social networks could be perceived as censorship.