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Russian media watchdog will launch platform to exchange data with foreign IT giants

This measure is stipulated by the new law, which obliges the owners of foreign Internet resources with a daily audience of over 500,000 Russians to open official representative offices in the Russian Federation

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) will launch a digital platform for the exchange of legally significant information with foreign Internet companies doing business in Russia, Anton Gorelkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and one of the authors of the initiative, said on Thursday. The State Duma is the lower house of the Russian parliament.

This measure is stipulated by the new law, which obliges the owners of foreign Internet resources with a daily audience of over 500,000 Russians to open official representative offices in the Russian Federation.

"Roskomnadzor will launch a digital platform for the exchange of legally significant information with foreign Internet companies doing business in Russia. Each company that meets a set of certain criteria will have to register on the platform and open a personal account there. This is spelled out in the bill," Gorelkin wrote in his Telegram channel.

According to him, the authorities will try to organize cooperation with foreign IT companies "in a one-stop-shop mode".

"Therefore, the personal account of the interaction platform will be integrated with the personal account of the taxpayer. In my opinion, this is the optimal technological way of administering foreign IT companies," the lawmaker added.

Gorelkin stressed that the so-called "landing" of foreign technology companies will consist in establishing "constant and operational interaction" between them and the Russian authorities.

"There are no political goals and motives here, only the desire to protect Russian users, who are now simply deprived of rights on popular foreign platforms," he assured.

Earlier, head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein said that the refusal to open a branch in Russia may entail a ban on the distribution of advertising on the Internet resource and about this resource itself, a ban on making payments to it, as well as a ban on the collection and cross-border transfer of personal data.

The new law also implies that users of the relevant Internet platforms should be informed about the violation of the Russian legislation, the lawmaker said.

On Thursday, the press service of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy told TASS that the bill will be submitted to the lower house next week.

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin instructed his administration and the government to submit proposals on additional requirements for foreign tech companies operating in the Internet, including the opening of their representative offices in Russia, by August 1.