Meta bans Russian media from its platforms
The American company Meta announced that it has banned Russian state media outlets on all its platforms worldwide, due to what it considered foreign interference activities, which Moscow described as negative, and unacceptable.
Meta explained in a statement on Monday evening, “after careful consideration, we have expanded our ongoing sanctions against Russian state media organizations, (Rossiya Segodnya), (RT) and their affiliates have been banned globally from using our applications due to foreign interference activities”.
On the other hand, Moscow responded by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters that this measure will make it more difficult to improve relations between Moscow and Meta.
He added, “Meta is tarnishing its reputation with these actions… Such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable and we consider them extremely negative… This decision complicates the possibility of improving our relations with Meta”.
On September 4, the US Department of Justice accused several Russian media organizations and social media platforms, including RT, of attempting to interfere in the US presidential election scheduled for November 5.
On September 13, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against three institutions and two individuals from the Russian state-run RT channel, for their involvement in destabilizing activities in foreign countries and providing significant support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.
US intelligence concluded that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election through RT and other media organizations, while Moscow rejected the allegations.
