Zürcher Nachrichten - Tech giants clamp down on Russia state-linked news

EUR -
AED 4.309641
AFN 80.748726
ALL 97.540161
AMD 448.264651
ANG 2.099897
AOA 1075.937535
ARS 1473.114289
AUD 1.786465
AWG 2.114916
AZN 2.009734
BAM 1.953467
BBD 2.360073
BDT 142.300055
BGN 1.955696
BHD 0.442277
BIF 3483.776963
BMD 1.173324
BND 1.498413
BOB 8.076355
BRL 6.530019
BSD 1.168899
BTN 100.930462
BWP 16.293929
BYN 3.82495
BYR 22997.145208
BZD 2.347946
CAD 1.596342
CDF 3386.21188
CHF 0.931408
CLF 0.029069
CLP 1115.514427
CNY 8.418363
CNH 8.404148
COP 4778.431311
CRC 589.546169
CUC 1.173324
CUP 31.093079
CVE 110.133471
CZK 24.613631
DJF 207.938501
DKK 7.464732
DOP 70.551755
DZD 152.246538
EGP 57.577465
ERN 17.599856
ETB 162.155417
FJD 2.630885
FKP 0.869357
GBP 0.867503
GEL 3.179469
GGP 0.869357
GHS 12.184448
GIP 0.869357
GMD 84.479046
GNF 10141.49336
GTQ 8.970287
GYD 244.527968
HKD 9.210474
HNL 30.592333
HRK 7.535788
HTG 153.387273
HUF 399.174167
IDR 19130.574172
ILS 3.916179
IMP 0.869357
INR 101.34179
IQD 1531.071488
IRR 49411.594254
ISK 142.395042
JEP 0.869357
JMD 187.442119
JOD 0.83191
JPY 172.62584
KES 151.663372
KGS 102.607531
KHR 4684.704651
KMF 492.21004
KPW 1056.02774
KRW 1619.268743
KWD 0.358121
KYD 0.974045
KZT 623.630532
LAK 25207.110749
LBP 104721.502992
LKR 352.571939
LRD 234.340135
LSL 20.576102
LTL 3.464519
LVL 0.709732
LYD 6.33295
MAD 10.530124
MDL 19.821905
MGA 5174.261529
MKD 61.486568
MMK 2462.751404
MNT 4211.385543
MOP 9.450613
MRU 46.393548
MUR 53.210544
MVR 18.067598
MWK 2026.843509
MXN 21.873301
MYR 4.960227
MZN 75.045831
NAD 20.576102
NGN 1790.492329
NIO 43.011382
NOK 11.821395
NPR 161.498762
NZD 1.949318
OMR 0.451142
PAB 1.168804
PEN 4.16173
PGK 4.913446
PHP 66.816048
PKR 333.099101
PLN 4.252777
PYG 8889.103734
QAR 4.261411
RON 5.069579
RSD 117.173991
RUB 92.11138
RWF 1689.618942
SAR 4.401695
SBD 9.721099
SCR 17.229184
SDG 704.581729
SEK 11.169349
SGD 1.500214
SHP 0.922048
SLE 26.986648
SLL 24604.016695
SOS 668.056251
SRD 42.982953
STD 24285.432386
STN 24.472338
SVC 10.226786
SYP 15255.388383
SZL 20.583821
THB 37.780432
TJS 11.2204
TMT 4.118366
TND 3.422912
TOP 2.748039
TRY 47.453571
TTD 7.937588
TWD 34.447607
TZS 3068.242134
UAH 48.829946
UGX 4193.991244
USD 1.173324
UYU 47.193638
UZS 14730.407922
VES 140.170654
VND 30664.815818
VUV 139.354189
WST 3.093038
XAF 655.227533
XAG 0.02989
XAU 0.000343
XCD 3.170966
XCG 2.106484
XDR 0.814907
XOF 655.227533
XPF 119.331742
YER 282.712297
ZAR 20.587437
ZMK 10561.323573
ZMW 27.030906
ZWL 377.809764
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Tech giants clamp down on Russia state-linked news
Tech giants clamp down on Russia state-linked news

Tech giants clamp down on Russia state-linked news

Tech firms from Facebook to TikTok and Microsoft moved Monday to curb the reach of Russian state-linked news outlets, which stand accused of pushing misinformation about Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Text size:

Social media platforms have become one of the fronts in the internationally condemned attack, home to sometimes false narratives but also real-time monitoring of a conflict that marks Europe's biggest geopolitical crisis in decades.

Facebook's parent Meta said it would be restricting access in the European Union to RT and Sputnik, which Western nations have accused of being Kremlin mouthpieces and serving as a platform to argue for war.

The social media behemoth's vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, cited the "exceptional nature of the current situation" in announcing the decision but offered no details.

Just hours earlier, Twitter said it would put warnings on tweets sharing links to Russian state-affiliated media.

Twitter's head of site integrity, Yoel Roth, wrote that the platform has been seeing more than 45,000 tweets per day that are sharing links to the outlets.

"Our product should make it easy to understand who's behind the content you see, and what their motivations and intentions are," he added.

In addition to adding labels that identify the sources of links, Roth said the platform was also "taking steps to significantly reduce the circulation of this content on Twitter."

Twitter and Facebook have both been hit with access restrictions in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine and are now "largely unusable," said web monitoring group NetBlocks.

Video sharing app TikTok told AFP it had restricted Russian state-owned media access on its platform in the EU, while Microsoft said it was removing RT from its app store and would change its search engine Bing's algorithm to shift RT and Sputnik content to lower in results.

Apple and Google did not respond immediately to inquiries about whether they would follow a similar course.

Netflix, which faced having to carry Russian state TV stations, said that "given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service."

- 'Frequently spread disinformation' -

The EU had already announced Sunday a ban on the two outlets broadcasting in member states, with bloc chief Ursula von der Leyen saying they "will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify (President Vladimir) Putin's war."

A Sputnik report fired back over the moves to restrict its access to social to media, saying the "unprecedented bans are a clear assault on free speech, but you can still follow Sputnik on Telegram."

The US State Department, in a report published in January, said the outlets equate themselves with public, independent media like the BBC but in fact "serve primarily as conduits for the Kremlin's talking points."

"RT and Sputnik are not transparent, and their overall goals appear to be fundamentally different from independent media... the Russian government is closely involved," the report said.

"The outlets' reporting and programming openly supports the Kremlin's positions and policies, and both frequently spread disinformation," it added.

The outlets are Russia's primary media directed at non-Russian speakers, with RT offering a global network of channels, websites and social media accounts publishing content in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German as well as Russian.

News of the RT and Sputnik restrictions came the day after Meta said pro-Russia groups were orchestrating misinformation campaigns on social media, using fake profiles or hacked accounts to paint Ukraine as a feeble pawn of Western duplicity.

The cyber security team at the tech giant -- also parent to Instagram -- said it blocked a set of Russia-linked fake accounts that were part of a social media scheme to undermine Ukraine.

W.Odermatt--NZN