Meta has announced that it is banning Russian media outlet RT from its apps globally due to concerns about foreign interference activity. The Biden administration recently accused RT of being an arm of Moscow’s spy agencies and announced sanctions against the media outlet. The State Department called RT a fully fledged member of the Russian government’s intelligence apparatus, accusing it of carrying out covert information warfare operations around the world. U.S. officials claimed that RT engages in propaganda, disinformation, and lies that reach millions of people globally.
Some of RT’s operations are alleged to be kept hidden, such as running platforms like “African Stream” in Africa, a Berlin-based English-language site called “Red” in Germany, and carrying out influence projects in France. The Biden administration is also imposing sanctions on the state-funded broadcaster that oversees RT, TV-Novosti, another state media company, Rossiya Segodnya, and its director, Dmitry Kiselyov.
The U.S. has previously accused Russia of interfering in U.S. elections and running information operations to interfere with global politics. Meta had started limiting Russian state-controlled media two years ago, and enforcement of the ban on RT is expected to roll out in the coming days across apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. Russia has denied these allegations of interference in elections and politics.
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