Russia's Internet watchdog blocks LinkedIn

Russia's Internet watchdog Roskomnadzor has demanded that telecommunications operators block professional social networking site LinkedIn. The website has been put on a list of websites that violate privacy laws.

The decision was made by a Moscow municipal court on November 10. The social networking site remained available both on mobile devices and from fixed points of Internet access through Thursday morning as Roskomnadzor's rulings take several days to implement.

LinkedIn is the first major social networking site to be blocked in Russia for violating Russia's law on "personal data", which came into force on September 1, 2015. The law forbids companies from storing the personal data of its Russian users outside of Russia.

Other major social networking sites such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have not officially announced any intentions to move their servers to Russia. Roskomnadzor, in turn, has not yet announced it plans to check the companies' compliance with the law.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site. Five million of its users are Russians.

The last major company to have successfully passed such a test was the Russian branch of the Microsoft Corporation.