Twitter In Russia: Site May Store Russian User Data On Local Servers

Twitter reportedly is examining how it handles personal data from Russian users as it attempts to comply with the country’s data localization laws, the Moscow Times reported Wednesday.

The Moscow Times said Twitter and the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications agreed data from Russian users would be moved to local servers by mid-2018.

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Alexander Zharov, the head of the government agency, said Twitter is currently “in the process of determining what information about Russian citizens and organizations in commercial relations with Twitter in Russia can be stored in the Russian Federation.”

TechCrunch confirmed Twitter is currently reviewing its compliance with Russian law and is considering moving some user data to servers located in the country, but have not guaranteed that user data will be localized.

At the moment, Twitter does not store any data in Russia. If the company does make a change, TechCrunch indicated it would revolve around data of Russian users who have a “commercial relationship as advertisers on the platform.”

The potential change stems from a 2014 Russian law that requires companies collecting personal data on Russian citizens to store that information in Russian territory. The controversial rule, which went into effect in 2015, has created legal uncertainty for many tech companies operating in Russia.

Twitter, along with other major tech firms like Facebook, have held out against the rules. LinkedIn refused to abide by the law, and as a result, has been blocked in Russia. Others, like Google and Apple, agreed to comply.

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Compared to a social network like Facebook, Twitter doesn’t collect much personal user information — it requires just an email address to sign up, and it's up to users whether to provide more information.