A new law in Russia could significantly affect the business operations of social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google in the country, Tech Times reported.

The new law, which was submitted on Sept. 24, requires all Internet-based companies operating in Russia to store all information from local users within the country. This means the companies must invest in building server farms within Russia to continue operating, according to The Moscow Times.

In addition, the data kept in the servers must be retained for about six months so Russian law enforcers can access it anytime for legal and investigation purposes.

Those who fail to comply with the new law can be banned by the Russian government from operating in the country.

There is still no word from the tech companies if they will build new facilities or completely pull out of Russia.

Going with the latter option, however, can be financially damaging for the three as Google has 30 million users in Russia while Facebook has 20 million. Twitter, on the other hand, has 5 million Russian users.

For Russia, the departure of the three tech firms will probably not have a significant effect on the country in general since its local search engine, Yandex, has 90 million users. As for its social networking service, VKontakte houses 220 million local user accounts.

According to reports, the Russian government passed the law in order to prevent the West's alleged propaganda-laden ideas from influencing its online users. This is a way for authorities to protect the country from destabilization, CS Monitor reported.

"A fair share of unpredictability has arisen in the recent actions of our partners in the U.S. and Europe, and we must be prepared for all situations," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

"We know who the main administrator of the global Internet is, and due to this unpredictability, we have to think about how to ensure our own national security," he added.