The social network Twitter, in turn, has blocked the accounts of Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik in the European Union, as a result of the ban decided by the member states and which came into effect on Wednesday.
These two mediums are accused of being tools for “misleading Moscow” in its war against Ukraine, according to the decision of the EU member states.
It is now impossible to refer to the various Twitter accounts of RT and Sputnik. When we try, the phrase “Account with restricted access” is displayed.
The message follows: This account has been suspended in Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Germany, Greece, Romania, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Luxembourg, Latvia, Denmark, Lithuania, Croatia, Estonia, Cyprus, France, Spain, Belgium, in response to a request legal.”
According to the decision published on Wednesday in the Official Journal of the European Union, content of the Sputnik and RT (formerly Russia Today) channels in English, German, French and Spanish can no longer be broadcast on television networks and on the Internet.
Even before its official entry into force, the Internet giants took the lead: Facebook and Instagram (Meta group) announced on Monday that they were blocking content published by RT and Sputnik in European Union countries, followed by Youtube on Tuesday.
In a separate context, Twitter added the phrase “Russian state media” to the personal Twitter account of RT journalists.
In France, a country with the peculiarity of being the only EU member state to host a RT subsidiary on its territory, this mention was also placed on the accounts of former RT France journalists.
This reference amounts to a “classification of the personal accounts of some fellow journalists,” which was alarmed in a press release section of the SNJ (National Federation of Journalists) to RT France.
She denounced “witch hunts” and mentioned “physical threats received by several members of the editorial board”.
