LONDON (AP) 鈥� Meta said it's banning Russia state media organization from its social media platforms, alleging that the outlets used deceptive tactics to amplify Moscow's propaganda. The announcement drew a rebuke from the Kremlin on Tuesday.
The company, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said late Monday that it will roll out the ban over the next few days in an escalation of its efforts to counter Russia's covert influence operations.
鈥淎fter careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets: Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity," Meta said in a prepared statement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lashed out, saying that 鈥渟uch selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable,鈥� and that 鈥淢eta with these actions are discrediting themselves.鈥�
鈥淲e have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta,鈥� Peskov told reporters during his daily conference call.
Meta's actions comes days after the United States announced on RT, accusing the Kremlin news outlet of being a key part of Russia鈥檚 war machine and its efforts to undermine its democratic adversaries.
U.S. officials alleged last week that RT was working hand-in-hand with the Russian military and running fundraising campaigns to pay for sniper rifles, body armor and other equipment for soldiers fighting in Ukraine. They also said RT websites masqueraded as legitimate news sites but were used to spread disinformation and propaganda in Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration and charged two RT employees of covertly providing millions of dollars in funding to a Tennessee-based content creation company to publish English-language social media videos pushing pro-Kremlin messages.
Moscow has rejected the allegations.
Two years ago, Meta took steps to by taking down a sprawling disinformation network originating in Russia that sought to use hundreds of fake social media accounts and dozens of sham news websites to spread Kremlin talking points about .
Russian authorities designated Meta as an extremist group in March 2022, shortly after sending troops into Ukraine, and blocked Facebook and Instagram. Both platforms 鈥� as well as Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, which is also blocked 鈥� were popular with Russians before the invasion and the subsequent crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical speech. The social media platforms are now only accessible through virtual private networks.
In April, a court in Russia convicted Meta communications director Andy Stone of justifying terrorism and sentenced him to six years in prison in a swift trial in absentia. The charges against Stone stemmed from his remarks in 2022 following on Feb. 24 that year.
Stone, who is based in the United States, announced temporary changes to Meta鈥檚 hate speech policy to allow for 鈥渇orms of political expression that would normally violate (its) rules, like violent speech such as 鈥榙eath to the Russian invaders.鈥欌��
In the same statement, Stone added that 鈥渃redible calls for violence against Russian civilians鈥� would remain banned. The Russian authorities opened a criminal case implicating Stone and other unidentified Meta employees nonetheless, describing the statement as 鈥渋llegal calls to violence and killings of Russian citizens.鈥�
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Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.
Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press
