Saturday, November 12, 2016

Russia blocks LinkedIn

LinkedIn, a popular social networking service for business use, will be no more available in Russia because of a legal conflict with the government.


The government decided to block the access to LinkedIn in Russia according to the court decision that LinkedIn is against Russian data protection legislation.

International Business Times: Russia to block access to LinkedIn following court ruling on user data

Russia has a unique legislation regarding data protection. Any Russians' personal digital data possessed by a company have to be stored with Russia. If companies violate this rule, they are subjected to the block list of Russian telecommunication watchdog.

LinkedIn seems not to accept the judgment. Anoek Eckhardt, a spokesperson of LinkedIn, said that the court decision would prevent Russian users of LinkedIn from the benefit of its global network.

I think the appeal of LinkedIn will not be successful. Russia's intent is not to protect citizens' personal information, but to take the internet under the government's control. It seems indifferent to the users' business benefit.

On the other hand, it is nonsense to be concerned where the data of each person is stored. Once the data are uploaded onto the internet, they are spread to all over the world. It is unfeasible to control the flow of data.

This incident suggests that Russia is not a good place for internet business. As a result, Russian citizens will suffer from lack of availability of effective internet services, I am afraid.

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