Meta, the owner of Facebook, has announced that it is banning several Russian state media networks. The company alleges that these networks employ deceptive tactics to conduct influence 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 said.
In a recent news bulletin, RT newsreader Eunan O’Neill stated that the broadcaster, along with Russia as a whole, denies the numerous accusations that have been directed at this channel and others in recent days.
The bans are anticipated to take effect within the next few days.
The Russian embassy in Washington and Rossiya Segodnya, the owner of the Sputnik news agency, have yet to respond to BBC requests for comment.
Russian state media outlets are facing heightened scrutiny over allegations of attempting to influence politics in Western countries.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, is intensifying its stance against Russian state media companies.
Previously, Meta implemented more limited measures, such as stopping these outlets from running ads and restricting their content’s reach.
After the onset of the Ukraine war, Meta, along with other social media platforms, complied with requests from the EU, UK, and Ukraine to block certain Russian state media in those regions.
Earlier this month, the US accused state broadcaster RT of paying a Tennessee firm $10 million (£7.6 million) to create and distribute content with hidden Russian government messaging to US audiences.
An indictment revealed that videos, often promoting right-wing narratives on topics like immigration, gender, and the economy, were covertly “edited, posted, and directed” by two RT employees.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against RT, labeling it a “de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.” Blinken also described RT as part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets working to covertly “undermine democracy in the United States.”
He added that the Russian government has “embedded within RT, a unit with cyber-operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence”.
RT livestreamed Mr Blinken’s remarks on X and declared it the “US’s latest conspiracy theory”.