U.S. Tech Giant Meta Bans Russian Media
A Russia Today set, 2024. X/ @Populiste63
September 17, 2024 Hour: 1:20 pm
The decision comes days after the U.S. government announced sanctions against Russian state-run outlets.
On Tuesday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, banned Russia Today (RT) and other Russian state-run media from its platforms.
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“Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” a Meta spokesperson said, adding that the decision comes days after the U.S. government announced sanctions against RT and other Russian state-run media.
President Joe Biden’s administration also announced the launch of a diplomatic effort to alert the international community about what US officials have described as RT’s role as a “full member of the intelligence apparatus.”
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that it had charged two RT employees with funneling nearly US$10 million to a U.S. company to create and amplify content aligned with Russian interests amid the campaign for the U.S. presidential election on November 5.
“Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Meta has been cooperating with a prohibition on RT imposed by the EU and other individual Western nations,” Russia Today recalled, mentioning that it had 7.2 million followers on Facebook and one million followers on Instagram before the ban was announced.
Previously, Meta faced legal issues in Russia as the U.S.-based corporation made modifications to its operating rules to allow the dissemination of hate speech through its platforms.
“Meta management ruled that Ukrainians were entitled to call for violence against Russians and to hail extreme nationalists fighting against Russia on their platforms. Moscow labeled Meta an extremist organization and banned Facebook and Instagram in Russia,” RT recalled.
On Wednesday, executives from Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet are due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about their platforms’ work to combat foreign threats to U.S. elections.
teleSUR/ JF Sources: EFE – RT
