TikTok has removed accounts linked to Russian state media for "participating in covert influence operations."
This is reported by Sky News.
Itʼs part of the social networkʼs efforts to prevent misinformation ahead of the US presidential election in November.
The accounts of the “Rossiya Segodnya” media group, which owns the “RIA Novosti” and “Sputnik” news services, as well as the parent company of the RT TV channel TV-Novosti, were deleted.
Previously, these accounts were restricted in the UK and the EU, and were also marked as state-controlled media. Now they have been banned forever.
Last week, a similar step was taken by Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which banned "Rossiya Segodnya", RT and others for "activities related to foreign interference".
- The blocking of Russian propaganda media accounts began after the US Department of Justice indicted two RT employees on September 4 for secretly running a US company that created content to influence elections.
- On the same day , the US imposed sanctions against Russian propagandists for trying to influence the presidential race. The list includes, in particular, the Russia Today media group and five of its subsidiaries: “RIA Novosti”, RT, TV-Novosti, “Ruptly” and “Sputnik”. Propagandists from RT, in particular editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, as well as pro-Kremlin hacktivists were also sanctioned.