On March 16, 2018, the broadcast truck of Russia’s state-controlled Russia Today (RT) television station parked in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin next to Red Square in Moscow.
Mladen Antonov | AFP | Getty Images
Social media giant Meta announced on Monday that it was banning Russian media RT, days after the Biden administration accused RT of As a division of Moscow’s spy agency.
“After careful consideration, we have expanded our ongoing enforcement efforts against Russian state media,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “Now, the Russian news agency, RT, and other related entities have been globally banned from our apps due to foreign interference activities.”
The move comes after the Biden administration took office on Friday new sanctions announced A State Department official described the outlet as “a full member of the Russian government’s intelligence agencies and operations” in the Ukraine war.
U.S. officials subsequently accused RT of conducting covert information warfare operations around the world on behalf of Russian spy agencies.
James Rubin, coordinator of the U.S. State Department’s Center for Global Engagement, said RT is “a place where propaganda, disinformation and lies are spread to millions, if not billions, of people around the world.”
U.S. officials say some of RT’s operations are hidden.
In Africa, RT is said to be behind an online platform called “African Stream” but hides its role; in Germany, RT secretly operates a Berlin-based English-language website called “Red”; according to U.S. officials In France, RT hired a reporter in Paris to launch an “influence program” targeting French-speaking audiences, it said.
The Biden administration is imposing sanctions on a state-funded broadcaster that oversees RT Media TV-Novosti, another state media company Rossiya Segodnya and its director Dmitry Kiselyov, officials said.
The United States has previously accused Russia of trying to interfere in the U.S. election by sowing discord and division in 2018. U.S. Department of Justice Announced indictments against 12 Russian citizens on charges of attempting to interfere with the 2016 election, including hacking Democratic National Committee computers and stealing emails.
Russia has previously denied conducting information operations to interfere in U.S. elections or other countries’ politics.
Two years ago, Meta began restricting Russian state-controlled media. The ban announced on Monday is expected to be implemented in the coming days.
Meta’s apps include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.
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