The scandal-hit data analytic firm was found last month to have collected personal details of tens of millions of Facebook users to target them with tailored campaign ads during the 2016 US presidential polls. It denied any wrongdoing.
Roskomnadzor, the state communication watchdog, filed an inquiry with the London-based firm last week, a source with the agency told Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper on Wednesday. It has not received a response, the outlet has learned.
18 April 2018, 03:23 GMT
Roskomnadzor's chief Alexander Zharov complained earlier that foreign-based social media were reluctant to cooperate with Russian authorities and took excessive amounts of time to act on their requests. A law came into being in Russia in 2015 requiring that Facebook store data of Russian users on the country’s territory.
The head of Roskomnadzor said that the watchdog might raise the issue of blocking Facebook if the social network fails to relocate the Russian citizens' database to the country's territory and comply with Russian laws before the end of 2018.
