Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said on Monday that Russian state media had been banned from its platforms around the world, citing “foreign interference activities.”
Meta said The expansion of “enforcement” against Russian state-run media was carried out after “careful consideration.”
The bans specifically included RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and Rossiya Segodnya, which owns Sputnik News and RIA Novosti. Meta's announcement said it would also ban “other affiliated entities.”
Meta began taking action against Russian disinformation campaigns about two years ago. Monday's action was a sharp escalation and perhaps a new Sanctions The U.S. State Department issued a warning against Russian state media on Friday.
The State Department's sanctions targeted RT, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken accusing the company of maintaining a “covert intelligence capability” and a “long-running disinformation propaganda campaign.”
Blinken said RT's staff included “units with cyber operations capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence.”
“Our most powerful antidote to Russian lies is the truth. The truth shines a bright light on what the Kremlin is up to in the shadows,” Blinken said.
Two weeks ago, the Department of Justice (DoJ) Opened The indictment charges two Russian nationals who worked for RT with funding several “secret projects” in the US, including $10 million to Tennessee-based Tenet Media.
RT is Quite a presence Before the ban, he had around 7 million followers on the Meta platform, around 7 million on Facebook and over 1 million on Instagram.
Russians did not take kindly to being banned from Facebook and Instagram, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov being furious. Accused Meta's platform to “discredit itself” through “selective actions against Russian media.”
“We have an extremely negative attitude towards this, and, naturally, this complicates the prospects for normalizing relations with Meta,” Peskov fumed in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.
“It's cute that in the West there's a competition to see who can hit RT the hardest to make themselves look good” RT said In response to that ban.
“Meta/Facebook already blocked RT in Europe two years ago. They are now censoring the flow of information to the rest of the world,” the statement said.
“Don’t worry, once the doors are closed and the windows barred, our ‘partisans’ – guerilla fighters in your terminology – will find an opening and crawl through. [the] “As the Biden administration acknowledges, we are good at doing that,” RT sneered.
Other social media platforms have also taken steps in recent months to restrict or ban Russian state media. Banned For example, RT, Sputnik and other Russian media reported this in March.
