SAN FRANCISCO — Meta announced late Monday that it was banning Russian state-backed media from its apps around the world, citing “acts of foreign interference.”
This prohibition is US condemns RT and its employees The unsealed indictment alleges the state-run media outlet misappropriated $10 million through shell companies to secretly fund influence campaigns on social media channels including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.
“After careful consideration, we have expanded our ongoing crackdown on Russian state media,” Meta told AFP.
“Russian News Agency, RT and other associated entities are now banned from our apps globally for alleged foreign interference,” said Mehta, whose apps include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.
The Kremlin on Tuesday slammed Meta’s decision. “Meta’s actions have discredited him. Such actions against Russian media are unacceptable,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The sanctions have forced RT to suspend official operations in the UK, Canada, the European Union and the US. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022According to the indictment unsealed in New York:
US prosecutors quoted RT’s editor-in-chief as saying the company had created an “empire of secret projects” to shape opinion among a “Western audience”.
According to the indictment, one of the secret projects involved funding and mentoring an online content production company in Tennessee.
Since its launch in late 2023, the Russian-backed U.S. content production operation has posted approximately 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said the content creator complained about pressure from the company to post a video earlier this year of “a prominent U.S. political commentator visiting a Russian grocery store” and that he felt it was “blatant propaganda,” but still agreed to the video’s release.
According to US prosecutors, the company never disclosed to its viewers that it was receiving funding from RT.
“RT conducted malign influence operations in countries opposed to its policies, including the United States, in an attempt to sow division in the Russian government and undermine opposition to the Russian government’s objectives,” prosecutors alleged in the indictment.
According to the social media giant’s regular threat report, Russia has been the largest source of disrupted covert influence operations on Meta’s platform since 2017, with online deceptive influence efforts increasing following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meta had previously banned the Russian Federal News Agency in an effort to thwart foreign interference efforts by Russia’s Internet research agency.
In a recent statement, the State Department said RT’s capabilities expanded early last year as the Russian government strengthened its “cyber operations capabilities and coordination with Russian intelligence services.”
According to the Defense Ministry, its cyber capabilities were primarily focused on influence and intelligence activities around the world.
The US claimed that information collected by RT’s covert operations was passed on to Russian intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups and other “proxies” of the Russian government.
The State Department said it was conducting diplomatic efforts to inform governments around the world about Russia’s use of RT for covert operations and to urge them to take action to limit “Russia’s ability to interfere in foreign elections and procure weapons for war with Ukraine.”