--- description: The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp announced a new ban on RT and other outlets, days after the U.S. sanctioned Russian media entities. title: Meta Bans Russian Media for ‘Foreign Interference’ image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffd87ad4442050f/698a5af09d83e8c853b9a85f/RT.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Meta Is Globally Banning Russian State Media on Its Apps, Citing ‘Foreign Interference’  by [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Reporter Sep 17, 2024 8:00 AM CUT  The Russia Today logo is seen on a iPhone in this photo illustration on December 1, 2017\. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images) The Russia Today logo is seen on a iPhone in this photo illustration on December 1, 2017\. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Jaap Arriens—NurPhoto/Getty Images  by [Chad de Guzman](/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Reporter Sep 17, 2024 8:00 AM CUT Social media company Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—announced Monday that it will ban RT and other Russian state media from its apps worldwide, days after the State Department announced sanctions against Kremlin-coordinated news organizations. “After 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 statement provided to TIME. Before the ban, RT had over 7 million followers on Facebook, while its Instagram account had over a million followers. The move is an escalation of actions Meta announced in 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to [limit the spread of Russian disinformation](https://about.fb.com/news/2022/02/metas-ongoing-efforts-regarding-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/ "undefined"), which at the time included labeling and demoting posts with links to Russian state-controlled media outlets and demonetizing the accounts of those outlets and prohibiting them from running ads. The company also complied with E.U. and U.K. government requests to restrict access to RT and Sputnik in those territories. In [response](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/russia-completely-blocks-access-to-facebook-and-twitter "undefined"), in March 2022, Russia blocked access to Facebook and Instagram in the country. Meta’s latest actions come after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in [a press conference on Friday](https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-29/ "undefined") that the U.S. government has concluded Rossiya Segodnya and five of its subsidiaries, including RT, “are no longer merely firehoses of Russian Government propaganda and disinformation; they are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.” Sanctions [unveiled Friday](https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20240913 "undefined") were imposed on RT’s parent company TV-Novosti as well as on Rossiya Segodnya and its general director Dmitry Kiselyov, and the State Department issued a notice “[alerting the world to RT’s covert global activities](https://www.state.gov/alerting-the-world-to-rts-global-covert-activities/ "undefined").” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told [the Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-trump-sanctions-harris-rt-f7e3ff262fdf24695048cffe2529b937 "undefined") that the State Department’s allegations were “nonsense.” Meta’s new global ban follows a similar YouTube [global ban](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/youtube-blocks-russian-state-funded-media-channels-globally-2022-03-11/ "undefined") on Russian state-funded media channels, while TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) block access to RT and Sputnik in the E.U. and U.K. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7021897/meta-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-rt-russian-state-media-global-ban/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7021897/meta-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-rt-russian-state-media-global-ban/"},"headline":"Meta Is Globally Banning Russian State Media on Its Apps, Citing ‘Foreign Interference’","datePublished":"2024-09-17T08:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:53:27.015Z","description":"The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp announced a new ban on RT and other outlets, days after the U.S. sanctioned Russian media entities.","url":"https://time.com/7021897/meta-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-rt-russian-state-media-global-ban/","keywords":["Tech","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffd87ad4442050f/698a5af09d83e8c853b9a85f/RT.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffd87ad4442050f/698a5af09d83e8c853b9a85f/RT.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"RT","caption":"","creditText":"Jaap Arriens—NurPhoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7021897/meta-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-rt-russian-state-media-global-ban/","name":"Meta Is Globally Banning Russian State Media on Its Apps, Citing ‘Foreign Interference’"}}]}] ```