US: NSA leaks should be no excuse for local storage mandates, which harm “organic” Internet

The US State Department has warned against countries such as Russia forcing web service providers to store citizens’ data locally, even though such moves are at least in part inspired by Edward Snowden’s revelations of the National Security Agency spying on foreigners’ personal data.

“[People should not] use the Snowden revelations as an excuse for taking what are essentially protectionist measures that will harm the ability of the Internet to work in an organic way,” a State Department official said, ahead of the annual Internet Governance Forum meeting in Istanbul.