NEW YORK, October 26. /TASS/. The online news and social networking service Twitter, the owner of the same-name microblog service, has made a decision to remove advertising from all accounts of the RT, a Russian English-language television channel broadcasting around the world, including the United States, and the news agency Sputnik. The decision is effective immediately, Twitter said.
"Twitter has made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned by Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, effective immediately," the statement says.
Twitter explains this decision is based on what it describes as "retrospective work" it has been doing "around the 2016 US election and the US intelligence community’s claims" that "both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government."
"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 argues.
Early this year, the US intelligence community named the RT and Sputnik as "implementing state-sponsored Russian efforts to interfere with and disrupt the 2016 presidential election."
This decision does not apply to any other advertisers. RT and Sputnik may remain "organic users on our platform," in accordance with the Twitter rules, the statement runs.