They were already banned in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada. RT – formerly Russia Today – and other Russian state media outlets are now banned from publishing worldwide on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, the parent company of these platforms has just announced, following accusations of interference by the US, Canadian and British governments.
What is RT and its parent company Rossiya Segodnya accused of?
On Friday, these three countries had pointed out RT’s activities, which “go well beyond those of a traditional media.” Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RT has acted “as an extension of the Russian intelligence services,” denounced Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, joined by her American counterpart Antony Blinken.
Rossiya Segodnya, the parent company of RT and the other Russian state media outlet Sputnik, is no longer “a mere conduit for Russian government propaganda and disinformation,” the secretary of state detailed. These entities “are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning as a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.”
As a result, these entities will now have to declare to the State Department – the American foreign ministry – all personnel working for them in the United States, as well as all their assets in the country.
What illegal RT activities does the US denounce?
Antony Blinken pointed to a crowdfunding campaign launched in Russia, which financed the purchase of weapons and military equipment for Russian soldiers. While this campaign was public, “what is hidden is that this program is run by the leadership of RT,” he revealed.
A few days earlier, on September 4, the US Department of Justice – the equivalent of our Ministry of Justice – had launched separate proceedings against RT’s activities.
In the first case, the Justice Department announced that it had charged two RT employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, with allegedly facilitating the financing of a Tennessee-based company. The company, identified as Tenet Media in the US media, produced videos with right-wing political influencers. Between October 2023 and August 2024, according to US investigators’ calculations, RT sent wire transfers to the company worth approximately $9.7 million, through shell companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Mauritius. This amount represented 90% of the company’s bank deposits. The influencers deny having any knowledge of the origin of the money that paid them.
According to the US Department of Justice, the two RT employees used false identities to work directly with the Tennessee company, to which they also allegedly gave editorial instructions. After the terrorist attack on a concert hall on March 22, 2024, Elena Afanasyeva allegedly asked one of the creators of Tenet media to implicate Ukraine and the United States in the attack, a common language of the Russian authorities.
The Justice Department also opened proceedings in a second case: this time, the investigations confirmed a practice, cybersquatting, which consists of buying domain names on the Internet close to those of reputable media, to make Internet users think that they are on the legitimate site of the media. The investigation led to the seizure of 32 domain names.
The Justice Department blames three Russian companies that “operated under the direction and control of the Russian presidential administration.” These sites “clandestinely” disseminated “Russian government propaganda” aimed at “reducing international support for Ukraine, supporting pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. elections.”
How did RT and the Russian government react?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Meta’s decision to ban Russian state media from its platforms was “unacceptable.”
As for the accusations of illegal financing brought against two of its employees, RT mocked them to the New York Times : “We feed on indictments from the US Department of Justice, usually with lots of sour cream. [une spécialité russe] “.