Match Group, Tinder Owner And Twitch Fined 10 Million Rubles By Russian Court

Tinder and the Twitch streaming platform have been fined by the Russian court. (photo: dock. pexels)

A court in Russia has fined Match Group 10 million rubles (IDR 1.5 billion), owner of Tinder and streaming platform Twitch. This is because they failed to follow local rules in data processing.

Russia's Federal Law on Personal Data requires Russian and foreign companies collecting personal data of Russian citizens to use local data storage within Russian territory.

Russia's data protection watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has been strict in enforcing the Data Localization Act with several striking fines since the onset of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

It is important to note that Roskomnadzor fined Facebook and Twitter in 2019 for failing to comply with local requirements.

LinkedIn was also fined in 2019 for refusing to transfer individual Russian personal data to Russian territory. Due to this non-compliance, LinkedIn was later banned from operating in the Russian Federation.

In July 2021, Roskomnadzor announced that it had made administrative protocols against WhatsApp, which first broke the rules, and once again against Facebook and Twitter.

A number of major digital services have withdrawn from Russia, including streaming giants Netflix and Spotify.

In May, Match Group announced in its annual report that it plans to withdraw their dating app, Tinder and Hinge, from Russia on June 30. A rival dating platform, Bumble, has withdrawn from Russia and Belarus in March 2022, as reported by the BBC.

Friends Fiduciary Corp, holder of Match, commented that Tinder has set an example for others by leaving Russia while bringing attention to the human rights risks faced by Ukraine.

Last year, European police agency Europol also highlighted how Ukraine's dating app was used for human trafficking purposes.