Social media accounts belonging to Russian state media outlets have been removed from TikTok for allegedly “engaging in covert influence operations” ahead of the United States election in November. Accounts associated with Rossiya Segodnya, the owner of Sputnik, and TV-Novosti, the owner of RT, have been affected. TikTok announced that these accounts had violated the platform’s community guidelines in a September 23 update.
TikTok stated that their team is working tirelessly to protect the platform and stay ahead of evolving threats. They enforce robust policies aimed at preventing the spread of misinformation and collaborate with internal and external experts to evaluate and improve their approach continuously.
The company defines covert influence operations as coordinated, inauthentic behavior where networks of accounts strategically work together to mislead people or manipulate systems to influence public discussion.
In a September 21 article, RT confirmed that TikTok had deleted its accounts along with some of Sputnik’s. The article stated that several accounts became inaccessible on Saturday morning.
Sputnik also confirmed its ban from TikTok in a statement on X on September 21. They mentioned that representatives from the app had not yet commented on the case.
TikTok’s August update revealed that they had also removed five covert influence networks targeting discourse about Russia, Ukraine, and Mexico. One network alone had nearly 3.8 million followers across eight accounts. The individuals behind this network created fake accounts to promote Russian administration content through anomalous user behavior.
Meta recently banned RT, Rossiya Segodnya, and other Russian state media networks for alleged deceptive tactics used in carrying out influence operations.
On September 13th, the U.S State Department designated three entities and two individuals for their connection to Russia’s alleged destabilizing actions abroad. The department clarified that they are not taking action against these entities based on their reporting content or disinformation but rather for their covert influence activities which are not considered journalism.
