14 DAY TRIAL // An anonymous source inside Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor told local newspaper Kommersant that the agency started legal procedures to block LinkedIn in Russia.
The source claims that Roskomnadzor is enacting a law passed in September 2015, which has never been enforced until now. The law says that all foreign companies that handle data of Russian citizens must store the information on servers located in Russia.
The law was put together following Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's massive spying operations, which had its tentacles deep in the data centers of several Silicon Valley companies.
LinkedIn is the first target of Russia's new user privacy law
LinkedIn's situation is a little bit ironic. LinkedIn is among the few social media sites currently not banned in China, mainly because it agreed to cooperate with authorities and remove controversial content.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and other social networking giants also do not comply with the Russian government's 2015 user privacy law. Despite this, the Russian government has chosen to go after LinkedIn in its first attempt to force US companies to comply with its new legislation.
The timing of this decision comes exactly one year after the law was approved, which many might have argued it was a grace period given to international companies to modify their services and comply.
LinkdeIn is not an accidental first target
Russian media quotes Russian Presidential Adviser for Internet Issues, German Klimenko, who says that by going after LinkedIn, the Russian government is giving big tech firms an ultimatum and last shot across the bow.
Choosing LinkedIn as the first company to go after is also no accident. Last week, Czech police arrested a Russian national on suspicion of hacking LinkedIn, Formspring, and Dropbox.
Russian authorities have opposed the suspect's arrest calling it an " example of US law enforcement authorities hunting Russian citizens around the world."
Roskomnadzor, or the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies, and Mass Communications, is Russia's telecommunications watchdog, an is the organization that runs a huge blacklist of sites banned in Russia, such as PornHub.
According to RAPSI, a Russian legal information agency, LinkedIn has filed an appeal on the ban, which the Moscow City Court will review on November 10.