Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on March 7 that the U.S.-based social network LinkedIn had refused to physically place its database servers on Russian territory, meaning it will remain banned in Russia.
Roskomnadzor said it had received a letter from LinkedIn’s vice president for global public policy and government affairs, Pablo Chavez, in which the company showed “reluctance to comply with Russian law.”
“The company refused to comply with the demand to allocate some of the databases with the personal data of Russian citizens to the Russian Federation,” said Roskomnadzor in a statement. This “proves the company’s disinterest in the Russian market.”
According to a report by independent Russian-language news website Meduza, LinkedIn Managing Director Ariel Eckstein says LinkedIn had met with the Russian body in December but “could not reach an agreement.”
Eckstein also claimed the social network has not violated Russian law.
Russia blocked LinkedIn in November – a court ruling found LinkedIn in violation of the law on storing the personal data of Russian citizens only on the Russian territory.
This is the first case in which a large IT company has been found guilty of breaching Russian law on personal data. There are no reports of tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google, or others moving their databases to Russia.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected].
