All advertising from RT and Sputnik will be banned on Twitter, the company announced Thursday, due to the US intelligence assessment that the state-owned Russian media outlets attempted to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
The decision to "off-board" all advertising from RT and Sputnik accounts is effective immediately, Twitter announced in a blog post.
"We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter," the company said.
Twitter pointed to a January report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence which assessed "with high confidence" that President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a campaign to "undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency."
The same report said the English-language RT and Sputnik were part of a "propaganda machine" that attempted to the influence campaign "by serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences."
"RT and Sputnik...consistently cast President-elect Trump as the target of unfair coverage from traditional US media outlets that they claimed were subservient to a corrupt political establishment," the report read.
Citing the DNI report, as well as an internal investigation, the social media company said the Russian interference "is not something we want on Twitter."
RT and Sputnik will still be permitted to remain Twitter users, but Thursday's decision means they won't be able to target posts or content at specific users.
Asked why they did not suspend the two outlets' accounts, a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the company has "a number of higher standards for advertisers than we do for organic content."
Twitter said they would spend the $1.9 million in advertising revenue earned from RT and spend it on "external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections, including use of malicious automation and misinformation, with an initial focus on elections and automation."
Representatives for RT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing news story. Check back for updates or follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2zSgBNy
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