Facebook owner Meta bans Russian state media networks

Facebook owner Meta says it has blocked several state-owned Russian media networks, alleging that they are using misleading tactics to exert influence and avoid detection on the company's platforms.

“After careful consideration, we have expanded our ongoing actions against Russian state media. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related companies are now banned from our apps worldwide due to foreign interference activities,” Meta said.

In a news broadcast, RT news anchor Eunan O'Neill said the broadcaster “and Russia as a whole reject the allegations that have been made en masse against this and other broadcasters in recent days.”

The bans are expected to come into force in the next few days.

The Russian embassy in Washington and the owner of the Sputnik news agency, Rossiya Segodnya, did not immediately respond to BBC requests for comment.

Russian state media are increasingly coming under scrutiny for allegations that they have attempted to influence the policies of Western countries.

In addition to Facebook, social media giant Meta also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

In a statement to the BBC, RT said: “It's sweet that there is a competition in the West – who can try to beat RT the hardest to make themselves look better.”

“Don't worry, where a door is closed first and then a window, our 'partisans' (or in your language, guerrilla fighters) will find the cracks through which they can crawl – and as you yourself admit, we are happy to do so.”

Meta's move marks a hardening of the world's largest social media company's stance toward Russian state-owned media outlets.

Two years ago, Meta took more limited measures to restrict the spread of Russian state-controlled media, including banning the outlets from advertising on its platforms and limiting the reach of their content.

After the war in Ukraine began, Meta – like other social media platforms – complied with requests from the EU, UK and Ukraine to block some Russian state media in those regions.

Beginning of the month The US accused state broadcaster RT of paying a Tennessee company $10 million (£7.6 million) to “create and distribute content containing hidden Russian government messages for US audiences”..

An indictment says the videos – which often spread right-wing narratives on issues such as immigration, gender and the economy – were secretly “edited, posted and directed” by two RT employees.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against RTand accused the organization of being a “de facto arm of Russian intelligence.”

The senior US diplomat told reporters on Friday that RT was part of a network of Russia-backed media outlets that had secretly sought to “undermine democracy in the United States.”

He added that the Russian government had “embedded a unit within RT that has cyber-operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence.”

RT broadcast Mr Blinken’s comments on X live and called them “the latest conspiracy theory in the US.”