Roskomnadzor has announced a possible restriction on the operation of eight major foreign hosting providers: Go Daddy, HostGator, Kamatera, Ionos, Network Solutions, DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, and Hetzner Online. According to the agency, resources hosted on their servers are exposed to high risks.
The press service noted that such providers can terminate cooperation with the website owner at any time for internal reasons or political considerations, which will make the resource inaccessible to users.
Roskomnadzor reported that information on foreign providers' servers is often insufficiently protected, which threatens the confidentiality of user data. The agency also stated that some resources of these hosting providers are used to bypass blocking and distribute prohibited content.
In April, Roskomnadzor already restricted access to eight of the twelve hosting providers, citing non-compliance with the "law on landing." These measures became part of the tightening of requirements for companies operating in Russia.
Nikita Tsaplin, CEO of RUVDS, noted that the current measures of Roskomnadzor are more aimed at blocking services, not websites. He recalled that the legislative framework for this was created about a year ago, but foreign providers, such as Go Daddy, had already left the Russian market at the end of 2023.
In addition, none of these companies have entered the Register of Hosting Providers created by Roskomnadzor. According to Tsaplin, clients of foreign providers have long switched to domestic hosting services, so the possible restriction of these eight providers will not have a significant impact.
The Register of Hosting Providers was formed at the end of 2023. Since February 1, 2024, organizations not included in the list have been prohibited from providing their services in Russia.
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