Meta said on Monday that it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya, and other Russian state media outlets from its social media platforms due to alleged foreign interference activity.
Meta said that Russian state media outlets will be blocked from accessing Meta’s apps globally, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.
“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets,” Meta said in a statement. “Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.”
RT posted on the social media platform X that “Meta can ban us all it wants” while listing links to other alternative platforms.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Meta is discrediting itself with these actions. Such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable. … This complicates prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta.”
Russia designated Meta as an extremist group in 2022.
Meta’s ban comes days after the U.S. State Department accused RT, formerly known as Russia Today, of engaging in “covert influence and military procurement” targeting countries around the world.
The department on Sept. 13 announced sanctions against TV-Novosti, the company that controls the RT media channel, as well as Rossiya Segodnya and its director, Dmitry Konstantinovich Kiselev.
Washington alleged that RT used proxy outlets to “covertly” disseminate content and evade Western responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These proxy outlets were purported to be independent from Russia.
Washington stated that for two years, RT had allegedly used state funding to “covertly recruit and pay” social media personalities and provide them with unbranded content to disseminate while concealing its involvement.
The department also alleged that an online crowdfunding platform operating within RT and on social media channels provided “material support and weaponry” to Russia’s military units stationed in Ukraine.
These weapons include sniper rifles, body armor, suppressors, night-vision equipment, and drones, among other items. The department stated that some military equipment was sourced from China, such as spy drones.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Sept. 13 that the Kremlin had embedded a unit within RT with cyber operational capabilities and connections to Russian intelligence agencies.
“RT’s expanded covert capabilities allow it to deepen coordination with traditional Russian intelligence services as they work to manipulate the outcome of democratic elections in the United States but also around the world,” he said.
Blinken alleged that RT and its employees coordinated directly with the Kremlin to influence the October 2024 presidential election in Moldova, a former Soviet republic in Europe.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged two RT employees with conspiracy to commit money laundering for paying nearly $10 million to an unidentified Tennessee-based company to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences containing what Attorney General Merrick B. Garland described as “hidden Russian government messaging.”
The company has posted nearly 2,000 videos since its launch in November 2023, many of which contain commentary on U.S. events and issues, such as immigration, inflation, and topics related to domestic and foreign policy, according to the DOJ.
Reuters contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times