New York: Social media giant Meta announced that it has banned Russian state media broadcaster RT and other Kremlin-controlled networks over the alleged “foreign interference activity.”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has alleged that the outlets were involved in deceptive influence operations and tried to avoid detection. Announcing the move in a statement on Monday, a Meta spokesperson stated, “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.”
The ban will be implemented in the upcoming days across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. The social media giant has been shrinking the influence of the Russian state-controlled media across its platforms since 2022.
Before the ban, RT had 7.2 million Facebook followers and 1 million Instagram followers. This action is in response to recent allegations by the US that Russian media, especially RT, has been participating in covert activities to influence worldwide viewers.
Earlier this month, two RT workers were charged by US authorities with money laundering. They are accused of planning to engage an American company to create material with the intention of impacting the 2024 US presidential election.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on several countries to treat the Russian state broadcaster RT in the same manner as “covert intelligence operations.”
The coordinator for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, James Rubin, restated these worries, labelling RT as a channel where “propaganda, disinformation, and lies are spread to millions, if not billions, of people around the globe.”
RT has derided the actions of the US, accusing it of trying to impede the broadcaster from operating as a journalistic organisation. Meanwhile, Russia has not yet commented on the ban.