Russia prepares for block of LinkedIn

Court in Moscow says social networking site for professionals has broken nation’s rules as tensions grow in technology sector

LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals, is to be blocked in Russia after a local court ruled Thursday that it had breached the country’s data protection rules, a sign of growing tensions for U.S. tech companies operating in the country.

The case in the Moscow city courts arose at a time of debate in Washington over how the United States might retaliate for what U.S. security officials said was the Russian government’s hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and other digital interference in the presidential election.

The case began in August, before Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, and there is currently no connection between the LinkedIn case and the hacking scandal.

The country’s push to gain greater control over its internet users is one of a number of attempts by governments worldwide to dictate how people use digital services.

Russia imposed its ban after lawmakers passed new rules last year that required any personal digital data on Russian citizens collected by companies to be stored within the country.

Officials said the rules were aimed at protecting people’s online privacy from hackers, but critics have claimed the legislation could allow Russian authorities to force companies to hand over sensitive information about their users.

Many of Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies, like Facebook and Twitter, also do not store data locally within Russia, but Roskomnadzor, the country’s telecommunications watchdog, targeted LinkedIn for its failure to comply with the new data rules.

It was unclear why LinkedIn was targeted in particular, rather than any other major social networking site. Analysts have suggested that the Russian authorities focused on the company as a warning to larger tech companies.

The Moscow court decision, upholding a previous ruling against LinkedIn, means the company will now be blocked from operating across the country.

“The Russian court’s decision has the potential to deny access to LinkedIn for the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses,” Anoek Eckhardt, a company spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We remain interested in a meeting with Roskomnadzor to discuss their data localization request.”

LinkedIn is being bought by Microsoft — a Silicon Valley tech giant with deep links in Russia — for $26.2 billion.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.