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| Russia forces tech giants to open local offices |
Lawmakers across the country have decided that major tech companies like Apple should open offices in Russia by January 2022. This could be a move to combat dissent and ban online comments.
After the vote, members of the Russian parliament passed a law obligating foreign companies to set up local branches or Russian legal entities. As part of Russia's efforts to consolidate its so-called dominance on the Internet.
Companies that provide services to more than 500,000 daily users in the country are affected by their websites, which can include Apple and most social networks and search engines.
Although the law was passed by the House of Commons, it was not approved by the Senate and signed by President Vladimir Putin before it becomes law.
Reuters reported that the outside world in general expects the agreement to pass safely in the Senate and to be signed by Putin without problems.
The painter emphasized the need to create a local office, otherwise the foreign one would be outside the jurisdiction of Russia.
Websites and organizations that do not accept legislation and do not establish a local office are subject to penalties, such as being classed as noncompliant in search engines, completely removed from search results, or banned from advertising in the country.
Russia consolidates its dominance on the Internet:
The law is the latest attempt by the Russian government to defend its position on Internet and technology issues.
In 2018, the country banned the encrypted messaging app Telegram from the App Store. Although Apple later allowed the app updates to be published, this is not the case. The government also banned VPN apps in 2017, which in turn affected the App Store.
At the same time, Apple began complying with a 2014 law in 2019 requiring that citizens' data be stored on local servers.
Critics assume that storing user data on Russian servers leads to data misuse.
In April 2021, Apple had to add a number of government-approved apps from Russia to devices sold in the country.
In the past few months, Russia has cracked down on American Internet companies. Since March, he has been slowing down Twitter traffic to punish him for not removing what Moscow has claimed to have blocked.