"Certainly, generally speaking, we would not support a government shutting down American businesses. And I don’t know why this would be different, but I’d have to look into the details on that specific action and request that they’ve made," Sanders said at a briefing on Tuesday.
The statement was made after Roskomnadzor's head Alexander Zharov had stated in November that next year Russia's media watchdog would monitor Twitter's implementation of the country's law on personal data protection.
According to the watchdog, Twitter has assured it will transfer the data for storage in Russia by mid-2018, as required under the legislation, demanding foreign companies operating in the country to localize the data of users to Russian territory and allowing to ban those, which have failed to comply with the legal norms.
READ MORE: To Ban or Not to Ban? Facebook's Future in Russia is Uncertain
The ban has already affected the US LinkedIn professional networking website, blocked by the Russian Internet providers, though the company has voiced plans to return to the country by cooperating with the government.
READ MORE: LinkedIn Wants to Return to Russia, Intends to Cooperate With Local Gov't — VP
In November 2016, the professional networking website LinkedIn headquartered in the United States, was blocked by the Russian Internet providers following the website's failure to comply with the legislation on the localization of personal data storage.