The end of Facebook in Russia? Media watchdog threatens ban in 2018

Facebook might be banned in Russia in 2018 if the site doesn’t start storing Russian users’ personal data in Russia, head of media watchdog Roskomnadzor announced today.

The social networking site is in danger of following in the footsteps of LinkedIn, which was banned in Russia last year for not complying with similar requests. Roskomnadzor’s press secretary also stated that the watchdog has reached an agreement with Twitter that the micro-blogging platform will reach a decision on data storage by mid-2018.

Russia introduced new data legislation in 2014 requiring social networks to store the personal data of Russian citizens on Russian web servers. Critics of the law have expressed concern that it is more related to censorship rather than data protection.

Earlier this year Facebook and Google announced that they were looking to hire public policy and government relations managers to advise the companies on operations in Russia.