A court in Moscow fined Twitter and Facebook 4
million rubles each Thursday for refusing to store
the personal data of Russian citizens on servers
in Russia, the largest penalties imposed on
Western technology companies under internet
use laws.
The fines of nearly $63,000 are the first five-
figure fines levied on tech companies since
Russia adopted a flurry of legislation starting in
2012 designed to tighten the government’s grip
on online activity.
One provision required tech companies to keep
servers in Russia for storing personal information
they gather from Russian citizens. Russia’s
internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, has tried
unsuccessfully for several years to force large
companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to
move Russian user data to Russia.
Commenting on Thursday’s court rulings,
Roskomnadzor said Twitter and Facebook would
be fined 18 million rubles ($283,000) each if they
don’t comply this year.
Last year, Twitter and Facebook were fined the
equivalent of $47 each for violating the same
personal data regulation. The punishment had
no effect on the two companies, so in December
Russian authorities increased the fines.
The law allows online services that don’t follow
the data storage requirement to be banned
from Russia. Only the LinkedIn social network
has been blocked so far. It is widely understood
that blocking Facebook or Google would elicit
too much public outrage for authorities to take
the step.