Meta, the owner of the Facebook and Instagram platforms, has announced that it has blocked Russian state TV channel RT and other Kremlin-linked media outlets for engaging in covert operations to influence online audiences. As informs CNN, Meta said that these media tried to avoid detection while running manipulation campaigns.
The move marked a significant strengthening of Meta’s policy, which had previously taken less severe measures against pro-Russian media. According to the company’s official statement, media outlets such as RT, Rossiya Segodnya and their related organizations are now blocked in all Meta applications worldwide for foreign interference.
Before RT was blocked, it had 7.2 million followers on Facebook and 1 million on Instagram. Meta already restricted the ability of Russian state media to advertise on its platforms following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The decision comes days after the US Department of Justice indicted two RT employees for transferring nearly $10 million to the US company Tenet Media to create content in support of Russian interests. According to US officials, this influence campaign was aimed at an American audience ahead of the 2024 US presidential election.
Popular right-wing commentators, including Tim Poole, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and others, have been involved in Tenet Media. All of them declared that they became “victims of the Russian scheme”.
