Google, Meta face penalties in Russia as deadline passes to open local offices

JOYY

01/03/2022 09:35

By Paresh Dave
    March 1 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's  GOOGL.O  Google and
Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc  FB.O  are among internet
companies facing possible punitive measures in Russia after
failing to open local offices and take other measures required
by a communications law.
    Russian legislation signed by President Vladimir Putin has
obliged foreign social media companies with more than 500,000
daily users to open local offices since July 2021 or be subject
to restrictions as severe as outright bans.
    In November, state communications regulator Roskomnadzor
listed 13 companies it wanted to set up officially on Russian
soil and last month said it would start imposing restrictions by
the end of February.
    Ahead of Monday's deadline, only a few had complied.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week has added to pressure on
Western businesses to push back on Putin in any way possible.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2V21LU
    The new rules also require companies to register with
Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor and have a system
for fielding user complaints.
    Apple Inc  AAPL.O  and Spotify Technology SA  SPOT.N  had
fully complied before fighting began in Ukraine, and
Roskomnadzor's website on Monday also showed Rakuten Group Inc's
 4755.T  messaging app Viber had completed all required steps.
    Six other companies had fulfilled at least one policy but
had not established a Russian legal entity or local office.
Those were Google, Meta, Twitter Inc  TWTR.N , ByteDance's
TikTok, Zoom Video Communications Inc  ZM.O , JOYY Inc's  YY.O 
video app Likee, the government website https://236-fz.rkn.gov.ru/agents/list
 showed late Monday.
    Four companies - chat tool Discord, Amazon.com Inc's
 AMZN.O  live streaming unit Twitch, messaging app Telegram and
bookmarking service Pinterest Inc  PINS.N  - had taken no steps
to comply, according to the website.
    Likee said its Feb. 16 filing to form a Russian legal entity
is under review and that it plans to comply with the law.
Twitter declined to comment while the other 11 companies did not
respond to requests for comment. 
    Last month, Roskomnadzor said it would begin barring
non-compliant companies from selling ads in Russia. It
previously has said blocking access to the targeted services
would be a last resort, and that other penalties could include
limiting data collection and money transfers.
    The regulation is a part of a wider campaign for internet
control that critics say threatens individual and corporate
freedom. Authorities in Russia have issued small fines to social
media companies in the last year for ignoring their demands to
censor anti-government activists or information.
    Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a "special
operation," has curtailed access to Facebook in recent days in
retaliation for censoring state media services, which critics
say promote fake news and propaganda. Twitter has also been slow
to access on mobile devices.
    Demand for virtual private networking (VPN) apps, which can
help with circumventing internet restrictions, has surged in
Russia amid the latest crackdown. Three of the top five most
downloaded apps on Apple's App Store on Monday were VPNs, and
they generated a combined 383,000 installs over the past seven
days, 15 times more than the prior seven-day period, according
to estimates from tracker Sensor Tower.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2V37C8
    Russia, which has a population of about 144 million, had
nearly 51 million users on Instagram and 7.5 million on Facebook
as of last November, according to research outfit Insider
Intelligence.

 (Reporting by Paresh Dave in Oakland, Calif. and Moscow bureau;
Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((paresh.dave@thomsonreuters.com; 415-565-1302;))