LinkedIn Is Now Blocked In Russia

(RTTNews) - LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) will be blocked in Russia after a court upheld an earlier ruling that the professional networking company violated local data storage laws.

Roskomnadzor, Russia's communications regulator, has now started to enforce a block on LinkedIn. The regulator has ordered Internet service providers to block access to the LinkedIn site, which has more than six million members in Russia.

A district court had earlier ruled against LinkedIn in August following a complaint from Roskomnadzor that the company breached a law requiring businesses handling personal data of Russians to store the data on Russian web servers.

Russia passed a law in 2014 that requires companies to store Russian user data on Russian soil. Russia has not enforced this law and LinkedIn is likely to be the first company being actively pursued.

Roskomnadzor said it filed the suit after LinkedIn did not respond to two requests for information about its plans for relocating the data to Russia.

Responding to Russia's move to block LinkedIn, a spokesman for LinkedIn said, "Roskomnadzor's action to block LinkedIn denies access to the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses.

We remain interested in a meeting with Roskomnadzor to discuss their data localisation request."

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is in the process of acquiring LinkedIn. In June, Microsoft said it agreed to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending approvals.