Meta announced on Monday that it is banning Russian state media outlets, including RT and Rossiya Segodnya, from its platforms worldwide due to allegations of “foreign interference activity.”

This decision follows an indictment in the U.S. that accused RT of funneling $10 million through shell entities to covertly fund influence campaigns on social media, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube.

The ban comes as the U.S. prosecutors alleged that RT, under the direction of the Russian government, orchestrated covert projects to influence public opinion in Western countries. A recently unsealed indictment in New York detailed one such operation involving a U.S.-based content creation company that was secretly funded by RT to post pro-Russian content, including over 2,000 videos that have accumulated more than 16 million views on YouTube since 2023.

The indictment revealed that RT’s influence efforts were aimed at creating divisions in countries opposing Russia’s policies, especially in the United States. Prosecutors cited a covert project in Tennessee where content creators, directed by RT, produced videos intended to shape Western public opinion without disclosing their funding ties to the Russian state media outlet.

Meta noted that Russia has been the largest source of covert influence operations on its platforms since 2017, and such activity intensified following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. State Department further reported that Russia enhanced RT’s capabilities last year, adding cyber operational capabilities linked to Russian intelligence.

The State Department emphasized ongoing diplomatic efforts to inform governments about Russia’s use of RT for covert activities, urging action to limit Russia’s influence in foreign elections and its ability to procure weapons for the war in Ukraine. (ILKHA)