LinkedIn, headquartered in the USA, is a reputed professional social networking website. Starting its operations in May 2003, it has a subscriber base of whopping 467 million spread across 200 countries and operating in 24 languages.

On Thursday, Russian communication regulator, Roskomnadzor has ordered to block the access to LinkedIn, reports Reuters. This is the first major ban on a foreign media, following the ruling by a Russian court ruling citing data violation at LinkedIn.

According to TechCrunch, the ban on LinkedIn was ordered by Moscow district court way back in August 2016, and the order was upheld by Moscow City court on November 10, 2016.

As per a law passed by Russian President in 2004, all data of Russian Citizens should be stored on Russian servers only. A violation will attract enforcement of block on the media house. In this case, it appears Vladimir Putin may not interfere to subjugate his own law.  

Linked has lately confirmed the news in a press release. "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," said a spokesperson.

This incident has stirred a growing concern among foreign media about further blockades. However, Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, allayed fears on such rumors by stating         "no such concerns" were required.

Following the orders of the ban, Rostelcom, an Internet Service Provider (ISP), has already blocked access LinkedIn in 24 hours, and another two ISP's- MTS and Vimpelcom will follow suit to block LinkedIn access within 24 hours.

LinkedIn has 6 million registered users in Russia and their panic is unheeded by anyone. Last Friday, the US Government has said that "It is deeply concerned" with Russia's decision to block LinkedIn and feared that more social media sites could be targeted in future.  

Acquired by Microsoft, LinkedIn has generated revenue of $960 million in Q3 2016. With its ever-growing global presence among the business community and students, LinkedIn will scramble to mitigate this crisis and avoid denting the revenue.