MOSCOW, December 16 (RAPSI) - The Federal Agency for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has included the Wikipedia article on heroin in the list of banned web pages, TASS reports citing Wikimedia.Ru CEO Stanislav Kozlovsky.

Kozlovsky said the company has only been notified of the inclusion of the article in the blacklist. The reasons were not specified.

There is a discussion board on Wikipedia specifically for authors to discuss edits in compliance with Roskomnadzor’s requirements, the Wikipedia curator said. As soon as the reasons for blacklisting the article are clear, the parties will discuss possible changes. Otherwise the entire website may be banned in Russia, Kozlovsky added.

Earlier, the agency also blacklisted several Wikipedia articles that allegedly promoted drugs and suicide. In most of the cases, the articles were revised according to the agency’s requirements.

The Russian blacklist of websites was launched on November 1, 2012. Websites may be blacklisted by the Federal Service for Drug Control, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare (suicide-related content) and the Federal Agency for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (child pornography). Starting February 1, 2014, the register, as required by the Prosecutor General and his deputies, also includes websites promoting extremism and mass riots.

According to the law, a web page containing prohibited content will be blocked unless removed within three days of the notice. However, many communications operators do not have the technical capacity to block certain pages, and therefore they often have to restrict access to entire websites.