Russia to carry out checks on Facebook, Whatsapp: TASS

[May 24, 2018]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor will check by December whether Facebook and possibly Whatsapp are complying with Russian laws, TASS news agency reported on Thursday, citing the head of the watchdog.

Russia has said it would block access to Facebook unless the social network complies with legislation requiring websites which store the personal data of Russian citizens to do so on Russian servers. [nL8N1M73C6]

"We will take a decision based on the result of these checks," Alexander Zharov, Rokomnadzor's chief, was quoted as saying by TASS.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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