Meta Platforms Inc late on Monday said it is banning Russian state media outlets from its apps around the world due to “foreign interference activity.”
The ban comes after the US accused RT and employees of the state-run outlet of funneling US$10 million through shell entities to covertly fund influence campaigns on social media channels including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube, according to an unsealed indictment.
“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets,” Meta said in response to an Agence France-Presse inquiry.
“Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” said Meta, whose apps include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.
RT was forced to cease formal operations in Britain, Canada, the EU and the US due to sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the indictment unsealed in New York said.
US prosecutors quoted an RT editor-in-chief as saying it created an “entire empire of covert projects” designed to shape public opinion in “Western audiences.”
One of the covert projects involved funding and direction of an online content creation company in Tennessee, the indictment read.
Since launching late last year, the US content creation operation supported by Russia has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have logged more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, the indictment said.
Prosecutors cited a content producer as grousing about being pressed by the company to post a video early this year of a “well-known US political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia,” complaining it felt like “overt shilling,” but agreeing to put the video out.
The company never disclosed to viewers it was funded by RT, US prosecutors said.
“RT has pursued malign influence campaigns in countries opposed to its policies, including the United States, in an effort to sow domestic divisions and thereby weaken opposition to Government of Russia objectives,” prosecutors said in the indictment.
Russia is the biggest source of covert influence operations disrupted by Meta at its platform since 2017, and such efforts at deceptive online influence ramped up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to threat reports released routinely by the social media giant.
Meta had previously banned the Federal News Agency in Russia to thwart foreign interference activities by the Russian Internet Research Agency.
RT capabilities were expanded early last year, with the Russian government enhancing it with “cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence,” the US Department of State said in a recent release.
Cybercapabilities were focused primarily on influence and intelligence operations around the world, the state department said.
Information gathered by covert RT operations flows to Russia’s intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups and other “proxy arms” of the Russian government, the US said.
The state department said it was engaged in diplomatic efforts to inform governments around the world about Russia’s use of RT to conduct covert activities and encourage them to take action to limit “Russia’s ability to interfere in foreign elections and procure weapons for its war against Ukraine.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS