MOSCOW, November 19 (RAPSI) - Rostelecom, a major internet provider, has blocked certain sections of the Vkontakte social network, Digit.ru reports, citing Rostelecom’s Twitter account.

The provider announced that it had partially blocked the social network following an order from the Lefortovo District Court.

“As a communications service provider, we were obliged to do so,” the company tweeted.

In fact, only the IP addresses of certain pages have been blocked.

“Technically, we are not capable of blocking individual accounts, therefore we have blocked several IP addresses,” says another Twitter message.
Vkontakte Press Service told Digit.ru that an inquiry into the issue had begun.

In an interview with Digit.ru, a Rostelecom representative specified that the court had ordered certain Vkontakte content to be blocked due to its extremist nature. As a result, Rostelecom blocked access to several IP addresses on different web servers hosting the social network. Currently, users in several regions, including the Central Federal District, cannot access the website. Rostelecom is currently deciding what further action to take.

VKontakte is the Russian version of Facebook and is one of the country's most visited sites. Established in 2006, VKontakte has around 200 million registered users and is more popular than Facebook in Russia. Its audience reaches over 40 million users daily.