Héloïse Goy, with Alexis Patri
modified to
10:13 a.m., March 02, 2022
After the announcement on Sunday by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen of wanting to ban the Russian media Russia Today and Sputnik from the European Union, it is the turn of social networks to put in place sanctions against these two media , in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Social networks engage in the war in Ukraine. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even the Chinese social network TikTok sanction Russia Today and Sputnik. On Tuesday, all four suspended the accounts of these two Russian media. Telegram messaging has, for its part, deleted Russia Today, but not yet Sputnik. RT’s app has also been removed from the Apple Store. On YouTube, the videos of RT France have not been deleted. But it is now impossible to view them, the message “video not available in your country” replacing them.
For the moment, only the Twitter account and the RT website are still accessible in France. These sanctions then intervene the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen expressed on Sunday her desire to ban RT and Sputnik from all countries of the European Union.
The future of RT France in suspense
Faced with these sanctions and threats of sanctions, RT France held a general meeting on Tuesday afternoon which brought together employees and management. According to journalist Aude Lancelin, the management of RT France is preparing to declare bankruptcy. And, according to our information, the French antenna would no longer receive any money from Moscow. The members of the editorial staff would still ask themselves the question of stopping the antenna on their own or waiting for them to be cut live.
On Wednesday morning, the live channel was still broadcast on the RT France site. The Sputnik site was also accessible.