Russia has officially blocked professional-focused social network LinkedIn for failing to store Russian user data on servers located within the country.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, proposed the ban last week, and now it seems that Russian users are no longer able to access the site.

“LinkedIn’s vision is to create economic opportunity for the entire global workforce. We are starting to hear from members in Russia that they can no longer access LinkedIn,” a LinkedIn spokesperson said in a statement, confirming the block (via TechCrunch). “Roskomnadzor’s action to block LinkedIn denies access to the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses. We remain interested in a meeting with Roskomnadzor to discuss their data localization request.”

The ban is the result of a law passed in Russia in 2014, which requires that all user data for Russian citizens be stored in data centers that are actually located within the country. This makes it much easier for Russian authorities to access user information that might otherwise be protected by law in other countries.

LinkedIn is hardly the first social network to be banned in another country, and it seems like authoritative governments ban social networks all the time. For example, Turkey has previously banned Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms for failing to block criticism of controversial Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Likewise, China blocked Facebook roughly seven years ago for its role as a communication tool for students involved in riots protesting the Chinese government, and Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to get back into China’s good graces ever since.

In these situations, companies such as Facebook often have to choose between complying with local law or potentially being outlawed entirely within the country, but caving to these sorts of demands has led to criticism from some human rights organizations. For example, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized Facebook and Twitter for agreeing to censor some content in Turkey to avoid potentially being blocked. At the time, the EFF said that it was “disappointed in Twitter and Facebook for censoring content when they are not legally obliged to do so and demonstrating to the Turkish government that their bullying tactics are effective.”

It is currently unclear if LinkedIn plans on complying with Russia’s demands for local servers. But even if the company does decide to transfer its user data into Russia, such a move would not happen instantly, and it could be some time before Russian users can access the service again.

Photo by Arian Zwegers