Russia Almost Banned Facebook At Work

A Russian parliamentary oversight committee proposed a ban on the use of social media during the workday under the direction of committee chair Vladimir Slepak, according to Russian state media Friday.

Russia’s ministry of labor declined to include such a ban in labor provisions, however, according to state news agency Tass. The ministry explained that workplace behavior such as personal employee communications can already be regulated by the employer without federal interference.

The Russian government threatened to block all Facebook Inc FB and Twitter Inc TWTR activity in the country last May when the companies declined to to reveal the identities of visitors to accounts with more than 3,000 users.

Russia argued that they are compelled to do under an anti-anonymity law known as the “blogger’s law,” according to The Guardian.

Facebook has capitulated to Russian requests in the past, blocking a page dedicated to opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the day a rally to support his legal battle with the Russian government was set to take place.

According to web analytics agency Comscore, Russia has 13.1 million Facebook users, about 1.25 percent of Facebook’s 1.04 billion average daily user total for December 2015.

Russian officials could not be reached for comment.