Russia's new bill to crack down on foreign websites

Tencent Technology News July 6, according to Yahoo's Web site reported that the Russian parliament passed a new Internet regulation on Friday, requiring foreign Internet companies to store personal data of Russian residents in Russia.

The move apparently pressured foreign websites such as Facebook and Twitter to force them to hand over user information to Russian authorities.

"Most Russians do not want their data stored in the United States, where they may be hacked and captured by criminals." Vadim Dengin, a Russian parliamentarian who submitted the bill, said: "Our entire life is stored there "

He also added that Internet companies should set up data centers in Russia.

The bill will put more pressure on Internet companies that have not set up offices in Russia. All along, Facebook and Twitter have refused to hand over user data to the government.

Just days before the law was tabled in Parliament last month, Colin Crowell, director of public policy at Twitter, visited Russia and held talks with Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor. The details of the visit were not disclosed, but the outside world that the user privacy is certainly an important issue.

Russian authorities have been asking Twitter to set up an office in Russia, but the company has so far always refused.

"No one wants to move to Russia, but I am pessimistic and I think (the Russian authorities) will force them to move servers." Andrei Soldatov, a well-known journalist who oversaw Russian security agencies, Say.

"For the most part, this is for Gmail, Facebook and Twitter," he said.

Although the bill has been passed, it will not enter into force until September 2016. Despite this, the bill gave the Russian authorities a reason to close the uncooperative website.

This could adversely affect some Russian companies, such as travel websites and airlines that rely on foreign online booking services.

In an interview with AFP, Google said that they will see the final version of the bill will comment.

Yandex, Russia's popular search engine, said the company already uses e-mail servers in Russia, but added that it will take more than two years to build a data center from scratch.

The bill also needs to be approved by the House of Lords and President Putin. Earlier, in order to combat the Internet objection, the Russian authorities have passed a lot of restrictive regulations. For example, one act states: If a blogger owns more than 3,000 followers, the blog must be registered as a media. (Tan think)