The United States accused RT of channeling funds through shell companies to finance campaigns on social networks. That is why Meta decided to ban access to Russian state media worldwide.
Text: RFI / AFP
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta announced on Monday that it will ban Russian state media outlets globally across all of its apps due to “foreign interference activities.”
The ban comes after the US accused RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and its state-run outlet employees of funneling $10 million through shell companies to secretly fund influencer campaigns on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.
“After careful consideration, we have expanded our ongoing enforcement of the law against Russian state media outlets,” Meta told AFP.
Rossiya Segodnya news agency, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activities.
According to an indictment filed in New York, RT had to cease formal operations in the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and the United States due to sanctions stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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US prosecutors said an RT editor-in-chief created an “entire empire of covert projects” aimed at shaping public opinion among “Western audiences.”
One of those projects involved financing and managing a digital content company in Tennessee, according to the indictment.
According to regular reports published by Facebook, Russia has been the country that has carried out the most influence operations that are then interrupted on its platform since 2017, a trend that increased after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
In September, the US State Department said it was informing governments around the world through diplomatic channels about Russia’s use of RT for covert activities.
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