Facebook proprietor Meta to ban on Russian state media channel RT
Facebook owner Meta has said it’s banning Russian state-owned media outlets from its social media platforms over the alleged use of deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow‘s propaganda.
The company, which also owns WhatsApp and Instagram, said late on Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia‘s covert influence operations.
‘After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,’ Meta said in a statement.
The announcement, however, drew a fierce rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the action against Russian media was ‘unacceptable’ and that Meta are ‘discrediting themselves’.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin presents flowers to editor-in-chief of Russian broadcaster RT Margarita Simonyan on May 23, 2019
Meta has said it’s banning Russian state-owned media outlets from its social media platforms over the alleged use of deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow’s propaganda (stock photo)
RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan waits before a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his election campaign headquarters in Moscow in January
‘We have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta,’ Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call.
RT was formerly known as Russia Today and Rossiya Segodnya is the parent company behind state news agency RIA Novosti and news brands like Sputnik.
‘It’s cute how there’s a competition in the West – who can try to spank RT the hardest, in order to make themselves look better,’ RT said in a statement.
Rossiya Segodnya did not respond to a request for comment.
Meta’s actions come days after the United States announced new sanctions on RT, accusing the Kremlin news outlet of being a key part of Russia’s war machine and its efforts to undermine its democratic adversaries.
US officials alleged last week that RT was working hand-in-hand with the Russian military and running fundraising campaigns to pay for sniper rifles, body armor and other equipment for soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
They also said RT websites masqueraded as legitimate news sites but were used to spread disinformation and propaganda in Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and charged two RT employees of covertly providing millions of dollars in funding to a Tennessee-based content creation company to publish English-language social media videos pushing pro-Kremlin messages.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the beginning of a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force at the Justice Department in Washington
US officials alleged that RT was working hand-in-hand with the Russian military (stock photo)
The US indicted two employees of Russia’s RT and imposed sanctions on top editors of the state-funded news outlet, accusing them of seeking to influence the US presidential election
Moscow has denied the allegations.
Meta had already taken steps to limit Moscow’s online reach. Since 2020 it has been labeling posts and content from state media.
Two years later, it blocked state media from running ads and putting their content lower in people’s feeds, and the company, along with other other social media sites like YouTube and TikTok, blocked RT’s channels for European users.
Also in 2022 Meta also took down a sprawling Russia-based disinformation network spreading Kremlin talking points about the invasion of Ukraine.
Meta and Facebook ‘already blocked RT in Europe two years ago, now they’re censoring information flow to the rest of the world,’ RT said in its statement.
Moscow has fought back, designating Meta as an extremist group in March 2022, shortly after sending troops into Ukraine, and blocking Facebook and Instagram.
Both platforms – as well as Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, which is also blocked – were popular with Russians before the invasion and the subsequent crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical speech.
The social media platforms are now only accessible through virtual private networks.
