Russia's Digital Ministry to weekly update list of sites accessible under mobile Internet restrictions

KAZAN. Sept 19 (Interfax) - The whitelist of websites accessible during restrictions on mobile Internet services in Russia "will be updated weekly going forward," Digital Minister Maksut Shadayev told reporters at the Kazan Digital Week forum.

The list is compiled based on a rating of the most popular Internet resources in Russia, he said.

Shadayev said in August that his ministry and telecom providers have worked out a technical plan for user access to widely used services when restrictions on mobile Internet services are in place to ensure security.

He said the whitelist will include "all resources needed for life," meaning widely used services such as marketplaces, delivery services, taxi services and so on. The ministry also plans to make it possible to allow the operation of M2M devices (Internet of Things), so that bank machines, self-service devices and so on continue to work during restrictions.

At the beginning of September, telecom providers started to pilot provision of access to popular resources and services during Internet restrictions, the ministry said.

The so-called whitelist included public services website Gosuslugi, Yandex , VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Mail.ru, national messenger Max, marketplaces Ozon and Wildberries, Avito, Zen, video hosting site Rutube, the official site of the Mir payment system, and the sites of the government and president, the federal platform for remote electronic voting and the largest telecom providers.

The Digital Ministry said that in the second stage the whitelist will include mass media outlets, banks and pharmacies, and the sites of the State Duma, Federation Council, Prosecutor General's Office and Emergency Situations Ministry will be added soon.