India refuses to budge while US, Meta sanction and ban Russian state media network RT

The Indian government is unwilling to heed to USA's request to ban and block Russian state media network RT, formerly known as Russia Today, globally. While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is yet to issue an official statement, a government official told The Hindu thatthematter “does not pertain to India” altogether.

Notably, the issue was discussed at a meeting between US Embassy officials and the MEA in the past fortnight.

Kanwal Sibal, former Indian ambassador to Russia said banning media organisations showed “double standards” by the Western countries.

“This will be viewed as double standards by the Global South that they are trying to target. India will obviously not be responsive to such American pressure," Sibal told the publication.

Last week US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against RT stating that theRussian state-backed media company was“functioning like a de facto arm" of Moscow's intelligence apparatus.

“Today, we’re exposing how Russia deploys similar tactics around the world,” Blinken said. “Russian weaponisation of disinformation to subvert and polarise free and open societies extends to every part of the world.”

“We urge every ally, every partner to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders,” Blinken added, with the UK and Canada launching the 'joint diplomatic campaignalongside.

Watch |India-Russia Summit: PM Modi calls Russia 'India's all-weather friend'

While New Delhi has seemingly refused to comply, Facebook owner Meta on Monday (Sep 16) said it was banningRT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks from its platforms. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company said these outlets had employeddeceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online.

"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," the social media company said in a written statement.

Meta added that enforcement of the ban would roll out over the coming days. In addition to Facebook, Meta's apps include Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. It remains interesting to see if RT is blacklisted on Indian Meta platforms.

Meanwhile,RT criticised the US move and accused the White House of trying to prevent the broadcaster from operating as a journalistic organisation.

(With inputs from agencies)