Russia to inform Google, YouTube of bans

Google and YouTube will receive updates regarding Internet sites and content banned within Russia, the country's communications oversight agency said. An agency release said Google Inc. and YouTube LLC had formally agreed "to receive information from the register regarding content banned in Russia," RIA Novosti reported. The zapret-info.gov.ru agency site launched a register of "blacklisted" websites last week. Members of the public can submit screenshots and URLs of sites they consider to be offensive to the agency, which will then consider the complaints, officials said. In the first 24 hours after its launch the site logged over 5,000 complaints regarding offensive content, 96 percent of which were rejected after consideration, RIA Novosti said.