Meta bans RT

Facebook owner targets Russian media after Washington called them espionage offshoots

US tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, among other assets, has banned several Russian news networks, including RT.

In a statement to media on Monday, the company said the deplatforming of the media outlets from its apps was due to “ foreign interference activity” and would apply globally over the next several days.

The US government last week targeted RT with sanctions, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken claiming that the outlet is “functioning as a de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.”

Moscow has called the move an act of information warfare, which exposes the US inability to compete with Russian messaging fairly.