Zoom No Service Access. Russia Threatens To Block It

Zoom illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Russian legislators are proposing to block Zoom services in his country. Because the video conferencing platform prohibited the sale of access to their services to government agencies and state-owned companies of Russia and several other breakaway states of the Soviet Union.

"Russia is not an advocate of sanctions, but, if Zoom has such a decision for the relationship of government institutions and companies, then blocking their services in our country may be asymmetrical and regressive steps", said Alexander Bashkin of the United Russia Party, as reported by Reuters on Thursday, April 8.

Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote Zoom Video Communications Inc. prohibits their distributors from selling services to government-owned institutions and companies, according to a letter to RightConf, a Zoom distributor on Russian territory.  According to them, the Zoom requirement applies not only to Russia but also to the breakaway states of the Soviet Union.

Zoom itself follows in the footsteps of Microsoft, which has previously refused to supply the software to Moscow State Technical University. N.E.Bauman, because of the risk of sanctions from the United States. Educational institutions that have purchased zoom services may be the first to be affected by the verdict.

"In general, we feel sorry and confused as to why Russian government institutions and higher education are now missing the opportunity to extend the contract and make a new contract", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The video conferencing platform is actually updating its approach in the region and consumers who already use Zoom, both government and private can still access their services.

Another reason to limit the provision of Zoom services in Russia is because of the complexity of the law in Russia that Zoom must adhere to, said Anton Zykov, a partner of the Department of Taxation and Law at Deloitte, for example, the necessity to store user data in the country.