Russian-based Slack accounts are being restricted/locked indefinitely as the company complies with international sanctions imposed against Russia.
It was reported on March 16 that Slack is blocking accounts throughout Russia, after Slack’s parent firm, Salesforce, ceased operations in Russia last week.
A large number of users, both personal and business accounts, were affected. A statement from Slack explained, “Slack is required to take action to comply with sanctions regulations in the U.S. and other countries where we operate, including in some circumstances suspending accounts without prior notice, as mandated by law.”
Slack added “We are in contact with affected customers regarding the impact of these actions on their account status, where permitted by lawâ€
Slack has assured users that no accounts or data are being deleted, but that they will stay blocked until the sanctions are lifted. This might take months, if not years.
Namecheap, a leading web hosting business based in the United States, was the first to take action by blocking Russian-based users from accessing their services.
Namecheap announced in one of its emails to Russian consumers on March 1st that “Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime’s war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russiaâ€
The company is requesting that Russian users move their domains to another provider by March 6, otherwise they would be unreachable, with any attempt to access these domains resulting in a “403 – forbidden†error page being displayed.
Furthermore, Namecheap has begun blocking Russian clients from utilizing the company’s site hosting and private email services on Russian internet domains such as .ru and .su.
It is obvious that the international sanctions are affecting a large number of regular Russian citizens and businesses as a result of this war.
