Meta announces the banning of RT and other Russian state-owned media on its social networks

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Monday a global ban across all its platforms of any Russian state media, citing concerns over "foreign interference activities."

The ban comes after the U.S. accused RT, formerly known as Russia Today, and employees of the state media outlet of funneling $10 million through shell companies to covertly fund influence campaigns on social networks such as TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.

"After meticulous consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media," Meta told AFP.

The news agency "Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our worldwide apps for foreign interference activities."

According to an indictment filed in New York, RT had to cease formal operations in the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and the United States due to sanctions stemming from Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. prosecutors said an editor-in-chief of RT created an "entire empire of covert projects" aimed at shaping public opinion in "Western audiences."

One of those projects involved funding and running a digital content companyin the state of Tennessee, according to the indictment.

According to reports regularly published by Facebook, since 2017 Russia has been the country producing the most influence operations that later get disrupted on its platform, a trend that increased following the invasion of Ukraine launched by Moscow.

In September, the U.S. State Department said it is informing governments around the world through diplomatic channels about Russia's instrumentalization of RT to execute covert activities.