MOSCOW, September 26. /ITAR-TASS/. More than 1,000 websites that contain “harmful content” have become out of service over the past two years, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported on Friday, citing the Russian communications watchdog said.

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, known as Roskomnadzor, has blocked in the past seven months over 600 Internet resources that have been spreading calls for extremism and mass disorder, the report says.

Russian legislators have passed a law, which came into force on February 1, authorizing prosecutors without a court ruling to issue emergency orders that block websites promoting extremism, racial hatred or rioting.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has issued around 100 orders to block the illegal content since the law took effect.

Under the new law, websites violating authors’ rights and containing child pornography, drugs and suicide propaganda, as well as other “harmful” information, are also blocked.

“In our opinion, the law enforcement is effective in an effort to counteract illegal information, and we seek to make it less traumatic for the well-doing websites,” Roskomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov said.

A special Sputnik system, launched this summer in a test mode, helps the Russian watchdog find the illegal content as it withdraws the blacklisted websites from the search engine results.