The West fears and demonizes RT because it is effective and staffed with talented people, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said.
Peskov was speaking at the ‘New Media Festival’ in the Moscow suburb of Solnechnogorsk on Wednesday. In response to a question about Russia’s ban on Instagram, he explained that wartime requires restrictions, sometimes of a severe nature.
“I am firmly convinced that we have a duty to use all available platforms to convey our voice, our point of view, whenever possible,” Peskov told journalists.
“Our media have literally been kicked out of Europe, uprooted if you will. Our poor little RT, which has been demonized, which everyone in the world fears like fire, as if it were some kind of global corporation – it is actually a fairly modest outfit. But very effective, crewed with talented people,” he added.
In many places in the West, Peskov noted, RT has been “outlawed outright.”
By comparison, he argued the restrictions on Instagram seem less severe. Peskov added that, in his opinion, once the need for them lessens, it will be possible to consider unblocking the platform.
Moscow declared Meta – the parent company of Instagram and Facebook – an ‘extremist organization’ in March 2022, citing its corporate policy that allowed calls for violence against Russia and Russians. Both platforms have since been officially blocked. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, has been allowed to continue operating.
The EU and Canada banned RT, as well as other Russian outlets, within days of the launch of Russia's Ukraine offensive in February 2022. Major US-based social media platforms, such as YouTube, were pressured to enforce a global takedown of RT's multi-billion view network. The US government has no legal grounds to censor media outlets, but has relied on private corporations to do so instead.