Meta bans RT and other Russian state media networks

RT, Rossiya Segodnya, and other Russian state media organizations are more fond of Telegram anyway. However, from now on, they won’t be able to operate on Meta’s platforms even if they want to.

Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, said late Monday that it was banning Russian state media outlets from the 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 statement.

The ban marks a sharp escalation in actions by the world's biggest social media company against Russian state media after it spent years taking more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts.

There’s a reason to raise the stakes, though. A few days ago, the United States imposed sanctions on RT’s parent companies after accusing them of acting as an arm of Moscow’s intelligence operations.

The US filed money-laundering charges earlier this month against two RT employees for what officials said was a scheme to hire an American company – Tenet Media – to produce online content to influence the 2024 election.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said last week that countries should treat the activities of Russian state broadcaster RT as they do covert intelligence operations.

These entities “are no longer merely fire hoses of Russian propaganda and disinformation – they are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus,” said Blinken.

In a statement, the State Department said RT and its employees have coordinated with the Kremlin to influence next month’s elections in Moldova.

Separately, the Treasury Department also announced actions against RT executives and Russian state-owned media outlets as part of a coordinated response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 US presidential election.”

RT has mocked the US actions and accused Washington of trying to prevent the broadcaster from operating as a journalistic organization.

But in its statement, the State Department pointed out: “We are not taking action against these entities and individuals for the content of their reporting, or even the disinformation they create and spread publicly. We are taking action against them for their covert influence activities. Covert influence activities are not journalism.”