Meta Bans RT and Other Kremlin-Funded Media Outlets

Social media giant Meta has banned RT (Lean Right bias) and other Russian state media outlets, alleging they’ve engaged in covert influence operations online.

Recent Context: The move comes after the U.S. State Department accused RT of engaging in “destabilizing actions abroad” in a report last week. On September 5, the U.S. Justice Department accused RT of conducting an influence scheme that involved funding American conservative media pundits who were unknowingly taking Russian money, according to the Department.

Previous Context: In March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union banned its citizens from accessing RT. A few weeks after that, the Kremlin branded Meta as an “extremist” organization due to what it deemed were unfair changes to its hate speech policy. Meta apps Facebook and Instagram were subsequently banned in Russia.

Key Quotes: In a statement, Meta said, “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Meta is discrediting itself with these actions… This complicates prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta.”

How The Media Covered It: RT prominently noted that “Moscow has called the move an act of information warfare, which exposes America's inability to fairly compete with Russian media.” CNN (Lean Left bias) included context on scheduled Senate testimony from Meta, Microsoft, and Google executives scheduled to take place on Wednesday regarding combatting foreign election interference.