Russia is pulling out the stops in ceasing access to LinkedIn due to non-compliance. According to circulating news, the country’s request to have internet companies and services to store Russian client’s information locally was overlooked by LinkedIn. Fortune reports that on Thursday, the court ruled that the site will be inaccessible for all of their citizens going forward.
This coincides with the recent development in President Vladimir Putin’s urgency to become a more self-sufficient country. Recently, Putin made a statement that declared government agencies to start using software developed in Russia compared to the more popular tools. Even Facebook’s WhatsApp is on the chopping block, says Bloomberg.
Until now the 2014 law had been passed but wasn’t enforced. Microsoft has over six million customers in Russia and seemed more than willing to discuss the request for localized servers according to a quote from Bloomberg.
“The Russian court’s decision has the potential to deny access to LinkedIn for the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses,” LinkedIn said in a statement. “We remain interested in a meeting with Roskomnadzor to discuss their data localization request.”
It’s unclear at this time whether Microsoft intends to overturn the court’s decision with a compromise. With LinkedIn’s shutdown as an example, other companies have stated that they intend to comply with Russia’s localization. However, there hasn’t been statement from leading companies such as Google or Apple.
For now, tension is high. We’d love to hear your opinion as the story develops so leave a comment in the section below.
