Social media | “Meta disgraces itself” – Russia was relieved when Meta banned Russian state media

A technology company Meta bans Russian state media in its applications around the world. According to Meta, the reason for the ban is harassment and influence campaigns.

“After careful consideration, we expanded the existing means of coercion against the Russian state media. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our applications worldwide due to foreign interference,” Meta announced on Monday, according to news agency Reuters.

US media CNN by before the ban, RT had 7.2 million followers on Facebook and 1 million on Instagram.

According to the company, the ban will be implemented in the next few days. The company’s social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Threads.

Meta already banned Russian state media ads on its platforms in February 2022 after Russia started its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.

Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov commented on the matter on Tuesday, stating that the decision cannot be accepted.

“With this decision, Meta disgraces itself. Such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable,” Peskov said.

of the United States Last week, the Ministry of Justice indicted two RT employees, as they are suspected of directing approximately ten million dollars to a company called Tenet Media for the creation of pro-Russian content, CNN reports.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken quoth last weekthat states should treat RT’s activities like the covert operations of intelligence services.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RT has participated in information operations, secret influence and procurement of military equipment in different parts of the world. With the help of RT, a crowdfunding platform has also been run to acquire military equipment for the Russian army, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed.

In early September, the US Treasury Department dish RT channel’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonjanin on the sanctions list, as he is believed to have worked in Russian influence operations.

RT was forced to cease official operations in the UK, Canada, EU countries and the US due to sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia placed Meta on the list of “extremist organizations” in 2022 and blocked Instagram and Facebook from operating in the country, Reuters reports. It said the reason was that changes to Meta’s hate speech rules allowed angry, anti-war posts from users.