TikTok deletes RT and Sputnik accounts

Video-sharing platform TikTok has deleted the accounts of RT International and several branches of the Sputnik media network. The crackdown came days after the US announced new sanctions targeting several Russian outlets, including RT.

On Saturday morning, the accounts of RT International, Sputnik Serbia, Sputnik Afrique, Sputnik Africa, Sputnik International, Sputnik Brasil, Sputnik Mundo and Sputnik Indonesia became inaccessible. TikTok has not yet commented on the development.

Sputnik Serbia has shared an image showing a query saying it could not find the account, adding that its page has also been blocked on Facebook, but remains operational on X.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has come under intense pressure from the US authorities in recent months. In April, US President Joe Biden signed a law allowing the social network to be banned if it is not sold within a year

Last week, the US announced sanctions against several Russian media agencies, including RT and its parent companies Rossiya Segodnya and TV-Novosti, claiming that they aimed to covertly “undermine democracy” in the country. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also alleged that RT is “functioning as a de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.”

Following the new restrictions, US tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, banned several Russian news networks, including RT, citing their alleged “foreign interference activity.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has denounced the new sanctions as an act of blatant “aggression,” adding that the restrictions hinged on “monstrous and baseless” accusations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also weighed in, saying that Meta had completely “discredited itself” by engaging in what he called “selective actions against Russian media.”