LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - A leading Russian rights

group says it has received a notice from YouTube threatening to

block access in Russia to one of its video channels featuring

news on the war in Ukraine.

OVD-Info, an independent protest monitoring network, said it

had received an email from YouTube in early May saying that the

Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor had found content

on the channel that violated a law on information technology.

"If you do not remove the content, Google may be required to

block it," Alphabet Inc's ( GOOG ) YouTube wrote, according to

screenshots of an email shared with Reuters. The email did not

specify which part of the law OVD-Info was accused of violating.

The channel, Kak Teper (What's Going On), has 100,000

subscribers and features interviews with Russian opposition

figures and political news segments that often touch on the war.

"We are consulting with YouTube and Google and trying to

explain that the demand to block our channel is an act of

political censorship," said OVD-Info spokesperson Dmitrii

Anisimov. He said the group's other YouTube channel was not

affected.

Contacted by Reuters two times about Youtube's discussions

with OVD-Info, a spokesperson for YouTube did not respond. The

spokesperson answered separate questions about three other

opposition channels which had videos blocked.

Like many Western technology companies, Google quit Russia

over its invasion of Ukraine, pulling its staff and suspending

all advertising sales, including on YouTube.

Russia has blocked the vast majority of foreign social media

platforms, but has stopped short of blocking YouTube despite

fining the video-hosting platform repeatedly for failing to

delete content Moscow deems illegal.

YouTube has tens of millions of monthly users in Russia and

blocking the entire platform could prove highly unpopular.

Russian independent media reported on Monday that YouTube

had deleted videos from three other channels that provided

information on how to evade Russian military service.

Two of the groups told Reuters their content had been

reinstated within a day after the media reports.

When contacted by Reuters about the videos, the YouTube

spokesperson replied by email: "The content in question has been

reinstated to YouTube," without elaborating.

OVD-Info's Kak Teper would be the first Russian human rights

channel to be banned on YouTube, as opposed to just a few

videos, according to Natalia Krapiva, tech legal counsel at

global digital rights non-profit Access Now.

"We will not have any YouTube to fight for anymore if all

the civil society is blocked there," Krapiva said in a phone

interview.