Following some controversial posts, Twitter today decided to black out the account of Russia Today, Russian media believed to be the Kremlin’s propaganda tool. The channel is currently unreachable throughout Europe, including Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Russia Today is the first fully digital Russian channel to be part of the dense network of media funded (and economically supported) by the Putin regime.
Russia Today Twitter account blacked out for hate speech
Currently – as you can see from the image below – the profile is unreachable in Italy, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta, Germany, Greece, Romania, Holland, Bulgaria, Austria, Luxembourg, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Denmark, Croatia, Latvia , Estonia, Cyprus, France, Spain, Belgium. A description of “Russian State Affiliated Media” has also been added below the tag.
Twitter’s stance comes following a controversial message from Anchorman Anton Krasovsky, which had repeatedly incited violence against the Ukrainian people. Kiev’s response was not long in coming, with an appeal from the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba, to the Western world. The latter had clamored for a ban on the numerous violent messages promoted by Russia Today.
Google removed Russia Today from its search results in the EU last March. Similar maneuvers against the Russian state media have been implemented by several other tech companies.