Russia to carry out checks on Facebook, WhatsApp

Moscow: Russian state telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor will check by December whether Facebook and possibly WhatsApp are complying with Russian laws, TASS news agency reported, 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. “We will take a decision based on the result of these checks,” Alexander Zharov, Rokomnadzor’s chief, was quoted as saying by TASS.