Russian president signs law on regulation of ICT companies

Moscow, Jul 1 (Prensa Latina) Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that obliges large foreign Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) companies to open legal representations in the country, it was reported on Thursday.

July 1, 2021
07:17

The law requests that telecom giants with more than 500,000 users a day open representative offices or establish legal entities in Russia in their name as of January 1, 2022, the legal information website informed this Thursday.

The law introduces a set of measures to oblige ICT companies to comply with the national legislation, among them to inform their users about the regulations to avoid violations over the internet, among others.

The new code will be extended to web hosting providers, advertising platforms, social media and other data and information dissemination systems on the internet, the official website of parliament stated.

The new regulations will mainly affect Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, among other companies, some accused of not deleting contents prohibited by the Russian law or blocking the country’s media.

The Russian Government, the Bank of Russia, and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service supported the law.

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