According to Moscow Times, for the second time now, Roskomnadzor, Russia's communications watchdog finds himself in an awkward situation. The first was when the agency unsuccessful tried to block Wikipedia from being working in Russia and now Facebook is in the brink of being blocked in the said country. This was after Facebook had rejected the demand of the agency to transfer the personal information of its users onto Russian territory. Facebook takes this as a bluff and thinks that their officials don't really want to shut down the social network.
The law "on personal data" that requires foreign Internet companies to transfer the data of Russian citizens onto Russian territory is reported to take effect on Sept. 1. Furthermore Moscow Times reports that According to Pavel Savitsky of the law firm Borenius, the main problem is the loose wording of the legislation as the law gives a vague definition of what is actually meant as a personal data. Facebook was said to have refused, arguing that user accounts don't represent personal data and forcing Roskomnadzor to clearly define what "personal data" precisely means. Savitsky believes that the new law seeks to control data by keeping it from going out the country rather than protect personal information
A possible scenario, according to Moscow Times, is that Roskomnadzor will come up with an elaborately worded explanation of its demand basing on which market will have to comply with the law and Facebook will insist on its reputation as a company that safeguards personal data and that it does not want to shell out resources by transferring its servers.
Lastly, it was added in the end that Facebook user agreement that a user needs to agree to upon registration already meets the laws requirement for data protection.
