LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) is now officially banned in Russia.
Russia is banning LinkedIn Corp due to a new law that went into effect in September 2015. This law requires any company that stores information on Russian citizens to do so in the country. LNKD’s headquarters is in the United States and that is where it stores all user data.
The move means that 6 million LinkedIn Corp users in Russia are now no longer able to access their accounts. The decision to block the service was made by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator. It’s likely that this case will determine how the country handles other internet services that store Russian users’ information outside of the country.
LinkedIn Corp has already reached out to Roskomnadzor, to try and resolve the issue. Roskomnadzor said it expects to meet with LNKD in the next two weeks, but notes it needs permission from the foreign ministry and the security services before it can do so, reports Reuters.
LinkedIn Corp attempted to stop the ban in Russian before it went into place. It tried to meet with regulators in the country on Nov. 11 to do so, but it appears that this never happened. It’s currently unknown if LNKD is looking for an exception to the law, or if it is seeking more time to comply with it.
Several other social media websites, such as Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), still likely house their data outside of Russia. However, those services continue to operate in the country. It is possible that Russia went after LinkedIn Corp as a way to warn the larger companies about its plans, Tech Crunch notes.
