US 'deeply concerned' over Russia's ban of LinkedIn
The US government is “deeply concerned” over Russia’s recent ban of the LinkedIn website, as stated by a spokesperson of the US Embassy in Moscow, Maria Olson, TASS reported.
Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications, also known as Roskomnadzor, announced on Thursday that it had banned LinkedIn and instructed Russian telecommunications operators to block the website.
According to Olson, "This decision is the first of its kind and sets a troubling precedent that could be used to justify shutting down any website that contains Russian user data. We urge Russia to restore access immediately to LinkedIn.”
"We will continue to work with LinkedIn and other U.S. companies laboring under this and other anti-competitive and counterproductive market restrictions imposed by the Russian Government to the detriment of the Russian people," she added.
The Moscow City Court determined that LinkedIn had violated Russia’s law on personal data localization, according to which the personal data of Russian citizens cannot be processed and stored in a foreign country.