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Twitter Reportedly Caves to Russian Censors, Will Possibly Move Data to Russian Servers

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Russia's media censor, Roskomnadzor, says Twitter has agreed to the transfer its Russian users' data to Russian servers by mid-2018.  

In a press statement, Roskomnadzor said the agency's chief, Alexander Zharov, has received confirmation from Twitter communications head Sinead McSweeney that the company is currently “in the process of determining what information about Russian citizens and organizations in commercial relations with Twitter in Russia can be stored in the Russian Federation." 

McSweeney's letter reportedly states that Twitter "will be able to send this data to Russia by mid-2018 and notify [Roskomnadzor] about it by that time."

In September 2015, Russia passed a law that requires Internet companies to store Russian users' personal data on localized servers. In November last year, the business social network LinkedIn was accused of violating this law and was subsequently blocked in Russia.

Twitter refused to comment on these plans to The Moscow Times.

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