Russia's parliament on Friday passed a law to force Internet sites that store the personal data of Russian citizens to do so inside the country, a move that the Kremlin says is for data protection but which critics see as an attack on social networks.
The law will mean that from 2016, all Internet companies will have to move Russian data onto servers based in Russia or face being blocked from the Internet. That will likely affect U.S.-based social networks such as Facebook, analysts say.
Coming after new rules requiring blogs attracting more than 3,000 daily visits to register with a communications watchdog and a regulation allowing websites to be shut without a court order, critics say the law is part of a wave of censorship.