Belarus' state media face reduced visibility on Twitter

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Twitter will block the spread of Belarusian state-run media tweets and accounts, according to the social media's Head of Site integrity Yoel Roth on Friday.

Roth explained that labels will be added to accounts and tweets that share state-affiliated media outlets after their role "in the war in Ukraine."

In a tweet, Roth explained how the approach "builds on our years-long work to add context to state media outlets and limit their reach on Twitter," claiming that "as is standard with these labels, we’ll reduce the visibility of labeled Tweets and accounts, and show a prompt before you can share labeled Tweets."

We’re adding labels to accounts and Tweets sharing links of state-affiliated media outlets in Belarus after detailed reporting about their role in the war in Ukraine. This builds on our years-long work to add context to state media outlets and limit their reach on Twitter. 🧵

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) March 11, 2022

Last week, Roth spoke of the plans to introduce a special labeling system for sharing links associated with Russian state-affiliated media websites.

“Today, we’re adding labels to Tweets that share links to Russian state-affiliated media websites and are taking steps to significantly reduce the circulation of this content on Twitter. We’ll roll out these labels to other state-affiliated media outlets in the coming weeks,” Roth tweeted.

This comes following Russia's special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, responding to calls from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics for help in countering intensifying aggression of Ukrainian troops.

EU bans RT, Sputnik

The European Union will ban Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Sunday, accusing the pair of "spreading harmful disinformation."

The European chief did not specify whether this ban would extend to the outlets' websites or social media pages or would be limited to their television broadcasts.

The European Union will ban what she claimed to be "the Kremlin's media machine," calling the act an "unprecedented" step.

The Association of European Journalists on Saturday called on the EU to ban RT all over the bloc and "remove" its journalists.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, sanctioned by the EU just a few days ago, responded to the latest ban by assuring the agency's journalists that "not a single person who faithfully worked and continues to work for us will be laid off in any country."

Germany's broadcasting regulator had banned the transmission of Russia's RT Deutsch-speaking broadcaster in the country.

No compliance with Russian demand to lift restrictions on accounts: Meta

Facebook parent company Meta had said on February 25 that it refused to comply with the Russian requirement to lift restrictions on the accounts of several Russian media outlets.

Belarus has found itself stuck with nearly the same sanctions as Russia after refusing to denounce Putin's operation.

The officials of member states in the European Union agreed to increase sanctions on Russia in Belarus, according to a document released in Versailles on the first day of the EU summit. 

According to the document, the states are "determined to increase even further our pressure on Russia and Belarus. We have adopted significant sanctions and remain ready to move quickly with further sanctions."