By banning Moscow-backed media outlets, the US group hopes to limit “their foreign interference activities.”
The American group Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced on Monday September 16 that it was banning Russian state media from accessing its platforms worldwide, to avoid any “foreign interference activity”The ban comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday denounced the destabilizing activities of Russian media outlet RT, which he said had been transformed into “branch” Russian intelligence in the world.
“After careful consideration, we have expanded our action against Russian state media”Meta said in response to an AFP request. “Rossia Segodnia, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps worldwide due to their foreign interference activities”the American company said.
Channels considered as propaganda organs
About ten days ago, the American authorities unveiled a battery of measures targeting the Russian media outlet, including criminal prosecutions and sanctions, in response to attempts to interfere in the elections in the United States, which they attribute to Russia. The State Department then imposed visa restrictions on the media group to which RT belongs, Rossia Segodnia, as well as other subsidiaries of this company.
In a message on Telegram, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had ironically criticized the latest American announcements on Friday, saying: “I think there should be a new profession in the United States: Russia sanctions specialist”. Russia’s state-run RT, launched in 2005, is seen by Westerners as a pure propaganda outlet for the Kremlin. Its website and television channels broadcast in several languages, including English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.
