TikTok deletes RT and Sputnik accounts
Video-sharing platform TikTok has deleted the accounts of RT International and several branches of the Sputnik media network. The crackdown came days after the US announced new sanctions targeting several Russian outlets, including RT.
On Saturday morning, the accounts of RT International, Sputnik Serbia, Sputnik Afrique, Sputnik Africa, Sputnik International, Sputnik Brasil, Sputnik Mundo and Sputnik Indonesia became inaccessible. TikTok has not yet commented on the development.
Sputnik Serbia has shared an image showing a query explaining content could not be found, adding that its page has also been blocked on Facebook, but remains operational on X.
The US announced full sanctions against several Russian media agencies, including RT, its parent company TV-Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya company, last week. Washington claimed the Russian channels aimed to covertly “undermine democracy” in the country.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also alleged that RT is “functioning as a de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.”
Following the new restrictions, US tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, banned several Russian news networks, including RT, citing their alleged “foreign interference activity.”
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has come under intense pressure from US authorities in recent months. In April, US President Joe Biden signed a law allowing the social network to be banned if it is not sold to a US owner within a year.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has denounced the new sanctions as an act of blatant “aggression,” adding that the restrictions hinged on “monstrous and baseless” accusations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also weighed in, saying that Meta had completely “discredited itself” by engaging in what he called “selective actions against Russian media.”
