Facebook proprietor Meta bans Russian state media networks | EUROtoday

Facebook proprietor Meta says it’s banning a number of Russian state media networks, alleging they use misleading ways to hold out affect operations and evade detection on its platforms.

“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 mentioned.

The bans are anticipated to come back into impact within the subsequent few days.

The Russian embassy in Washington, broadcaster RT, previously Russia Today, and the proprietor of the Sputnik information company, Rossiya Segodnya, didn’t instantly reply to BBC requests for remark.

Russian state media shops have come below elevated scrutiny over claims they’ve tried to affect politics in Western international locations.

As properly as Facebook, social media big Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

The transfer marks an escalation in world’s greatest social media agency’s stance in the direction of Russian state media firms.

Two years in the past, Meta took extra restricted measures to restrict the unfold of Russian state-controlled media, together with stopping the shops from operating adverts on its platforms and limiting the attain of their content material.

After the beginning of the battle in Ukraine, Meta – like different social media platforms – complied with requests from the EU, UK, and Ukraine to dam some Russian state media in these areas.

Earlier this month, the US accused state broadcaster RT of paying a Tennessee agency $10m (£7.6m) to “create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging”.

An indictment mentioned movies – which frequently promoted right-wing narratives on points reminiscent of immigration, gender and the economic system – had been secretly “edited, posted, and directed” by two RT workers.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced new sanctions towards RTaccusing it of being a “de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus”.

The high US diplomat informed reporters on Friday that RT is a part of a community of Russian-backed media shops which have sought to covertly “undermine democracy in the United States”.

He added that the Russian authorities has “embedded within RT, a unit with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence”.

RT live-streamed Mr Blinken’s remarks on X and declared it the “US’s latest conspiracy theory”.