Russia may oblige popular foreign IT resources to open local offices

MOSCOW, May 13 (PRIME) – The Russian deputies are preparing a bill obliging the owners of foreign information resources with a daily audience above 500,000 people to open official representative offices, Alexander Khinshtein, head of the information policy committee at the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, said on Thursday.

The local offices “must fully represent the interests and be in charge of their activities, including in state and court agencies,”Khinshtein said on Telegram.

To prevent ignoring the initiative, the bill introduces responsibility, including informing the users of an Internet resource on violation of the requirements to open a local office, a ban to distribute advertisements about the Internet resource and on the resource, a ban on payments to the Internet resource, and a ban on collecting and transferring personal data abroad, he said.

“It’s important that all these measures breach the interests of Russian users in no way or the possibility of working with the resource, but create economic stimuli for the IT giants to stick to our law,” the deputy said.

The bill will be submitted to the State Duma soon, he said.

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