The information publication Interfax, citing its sources in Roskomnadzor, reported that the agency announced to the management of Google, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp the deadline for localizing data of Russian users in Russia – until the end of May 2021. In the event that these IT giants do not respond to the request from the department, and do not transfer data about Russian users for storage on the territory of the country, measures will be taken to hold companies accountable for violating the legislation of the Russian Federation. In accordance with the current laws, companies will be required to pay a fine in the amount of 1 to 6 million rubles for such a violation.
In case of repeated failure to comply with the legal requirements of the market giants, they will be fined for a more impressive amount – from 6 to 18 million rubles. And although these fines are not particularly dangerous for Google and Facebook, the fines may be followed by blocking access to services of those companies that do not comply with the requirements of Roskomnadzor. For example, as in the case of Twitter, the speed of access to services may be temporarily slowed down, or these social networks, the messenger and the search service will be completely blocked on the territory of Russia. Penalties are more of a preventive measure.
It is worth recalling that since 2016, when the department demanded to store data about Russian users in Russia, the largest companies reacted quite quickly by transferring the database. Among the companies that fulfilled the requirements of Roskomnadzor were Apple with Microsoft, LG, Samsung, PayPal, Booking and so on. But Facebook and Twitter are in no hurry to comply with the requirements of the authorities – in February 2020, both companies were already fined 4 million rubles for failure to comply with this requirement. And if the database is not transferred to Russia by May, then the sanctions may be more severe.
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