Why Businesses Should Care Where They Host – Banned in the EU
RT is a news outlet from Russia which is now banned in most NATO countries, especially the EU. But the EU takes it a step farther, even Canada has just stopped them from officially broadcasting and Canada has not yet blocked us from accessing rt.com (perhaps future readers will find it is by that time). Being concerned about this situation doesn’t mean you have to regularly watch RT news or even agree with Russia, but if you value freedom and privacy, it’s time to take notice and take action (move your company, move your data and get outside residency and citizenship). Once these laws start, they continually keep reaching farther and farther with more restrictions on individuals and businesses. With the situation in the EU today, you are just one link away from being banned, fined or jailed.
I’ve used this link to illustrate the situation which is an apparent example of a serious crime in the EU: https://www.rt.com/russia/642490-eu-court-rt-germany/
I’m also quoting the article from RT (another violation of the EU law) news since most other news outlets have not covered this issue:
The EU’s top court has ruled that private individuals can face criminal prosecution for posting RT videos on public websites, widening the bloc’s crackdown on Russian media.
The Court of Justice of the European Union issued the ruling on Thursday in a case from Germany, where three people are being prosecuted for publishing RT DE videos on a freely accessible website.
What I’ve done with a single hyperlink above, is apparently not only banned, but it’s totally illegal in the EU and the courts have ruled that this increasing reach is the rule of law there. You can be fined and jailed for sharing an excerpt or link to rt.com. There is no more “grey area”, you are a criminal for sharing anything from RT news or linking to their content.
You may think Europe is still a free economy and if you do business and don’t engage in any sensitive or non-state sponsored narratives that you’ll be fine. China’s Nexperia, has proven this is a dangerous and false assumption: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/2025/12/31/the-dutch-seized-a-chinese-chipmaker-supply-chain-chaos-has-just-begun/
Whether you are an individual or a business, if you can host your data and applications outside of the EU, you will have less worries about accidentally breaking the law. Imagine if your employee or colleague searches for something and they accidentally share an RT news article about business in the company chat, e-mail or worse, the company’s public site or blog. Your company and staff have now broken the law, and the EU may seize or fine your company and arresting your staff.
A lot of our EU customers end up using our services to put their data in Turkey, since it has very low ping to the EU and is relatively neutral and doesn’t have such restrictions like the EU does.
Our clients don’t wait to find out, they move before it hits the news. Do you agree with the EU’s ban and do you think it will keep expanding to other areas beyond just RT and seizing Chinese companies?
