MOSCOW, March 18 - RAPSI. Google and its video hosting service YouTube are more concerned about ensuring visitor freedom of information than about protecting them from prohibited information, Federal Service for Consumer Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) said when a Moscow court began hearing a lawsuit filed by YouTube LLC against the Russian consumer rights regulator.

The Moscow Commercial Court held a preliminary hearing on Friday.

Rospotrebnadzor claims that a video on YouTube contained information promoting or explaining how to commit suicide. Upon receiving a ruling to delete the video, Google blocked it but later decided to contest the regulator's decision.

The representatives of Google Russia (Marina Zhunich) and YouTube LLC claim that the regulator's request would allegedly infringe on the public's freedom to access online information. However, the majority of the regulator's decisions (over 40) prohibit videos that contain information promoting or explaining how to commit suicide.

Rospotrebnadzor also expressed concern over the registration of a rapidly growing number of websites that contain ambiguous information that is difficult to interpret.

It has analyzed the contents of 1,309 sites to determine whether they contain information promoting or explaining how to commit suicide and has taken over 1,160 decisions to block sites containing such information.

Google and YouTube LLC as of yet made no comment concerning the watchdog's statement.