Russia’s biggest social networking website, VKontakte was inadvertently put on a state registry of blacklisted websites, while the access has now been restored.

The website, which is claimed to be accessed by about 40 million people every day was blocked by mistake in some parts of Russia, including St Petersburg, upon which users’ access to the site was denied.

Russia’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor spokesman Vladimir Pikov said that the error was led by a human factor.

"We will remove VKontakte from the registry and it should be accessible for everyone," Pikov said.

The registry was started in November 2012 and is used to blacklists websites considered harmful to children, and enables the government to take sites offline without a trial.

Additionally, the registry is aimed at protecting minors from websites that propagate child pornography, use of drugs and suicide.

Rights groups in Russia had condemned the registry claiming that it is an attempt to scuttle Internet freedom,while earlier, the watchdog had temporarily blocked access to Google and YouTube over technical errors.