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As part of its ongoing efforts to safeguard digital discourse, Meta made a sweeping decision Monday to prohibit Russian state-controlled media organizations from its international platforms, pointing to threats of foreign interference.
Meta’s ban follows US allegations that RT and its employees secretly funneled $10 million through shell companies to fund covert social media influence campaigns on popular platforms like TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube, as revealed in a recently unsealed indictment.
“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets,” Meta said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” said Meta, whose apps include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.
Following Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, RT’s international presence crumbled under the weight of sanctions, forcing the state-run broadcaster to abandon its operations in Britain, Canada, the European Union, and the United States, according to details emerging from an unsealed indictment in New York.
Read also: Russia, Ukraine Exchange 206 Prisoners In New Deal – Zelensky
RT’s editor-in-chief reportedly crowed about building a sprawling network of secretive initiatives designed to sway Western minds, according to US prosecutors, who are shedding light on the Kremlin-funded outlet’s covert influence campaigns.
The indictment has shed light on a covert project’s involvement with a Tennessee-based online content creator, sparking concerns about the manipulation of public opinion through strategically placed media. This development raises critical questions about transparency and accountability in the digital age.
Since launching in late 2023, the US content creation operation supported by Russia has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have logged more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors have exposed an instance of potential manipulation, where a content producer was strong-armed into sharing a video of a notable US political commentator’s grocery shopping excursion in Russia. The producer privately expressed reservations, calling it “overt shilling,” yet still published the footage.
