Secretary of State Antony Blinken just announced a total ban on Russian government-affiliated media outlet, RT, and other outlets. Some of these outlets, like RT (formerly Russia Today), had already been sanctioned by the US government to varying degrees. They were previously limited in their ability to publish advertising and the reach of their posts was suppressed.
However, this most recent announcement is unique and unprecedented in two respects. First, Blinken claimed without proof or evidence that two additional outlets served as “covert proxies” for RT and the Russian government. This includes the online outlets African Stream and red. media.
The designation of all of these outlets as “covert intelligence operations” marks a sharp departure from previous labels of “propaganda” and “influence peddling.” Blinken has now ordered US allies to treat such outlets as they would Russian spies.
To put this decision in context, even during the Cold War, Americans were able to access Soviet Union outlets like Pravda and Tass. Under the guise of “safeguarding elections,” the American government is now well on the path to criminalizing all dissent.
“Covert Proxies”
Both African Stream and red. media denied the allegations that they receive funding from any government. In Blinken’s press conference, he accused red.media of “participating in the organization of protests in Germany” thereby “sowing discord.” In this instance, Blinken is referencing an article by German newspaper Tagesspiegel that claimed red. media organized pro-Palestine protests in Berlin because of their presence at a student university occupation protest.
In an interview with red.’s editorial team, they rejected such allegations, saying that such claims take credit away from the organizers of those protests. In a press statement, red. media further responded to Blinken, saying:
“Let’s be very clear: if red. did not exist, the unprecedented and powerful protests in Germany and around the world against the genocide in Palestine would have still taken place. The only difference is that fewer people around the world would have known about them—something that would have been very convenient for “Butcher” Blinken, Germany, Tagesspiegel, and all those complicit in the genocide in Palestine.”
African Stream also condemned Blinken’s accusations as “clear attempts to intimidate and silence us.” In a statement, they wrote:
“They [the US government] want the world to believe we Africans cannot think for ourselves, make our own decisions, and promote our own interests…They have chosen Russia as the alleged master that controls us. They cannot come out and say that they are targeting Africans because we are diametrically opposed to imperialist interests in Africa, so they depict us as servants of the Kremlin.”
Blinken and the US State Department have not provided any evidence of links between these outlets and RT nor the Russian government.
Election Interference
Blinken also accused the identified outlets as engaging in election interreference in the US and other countries. The US Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing with the CEOs of tech companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft about said “foreign threats to elections.” During the hearing, chairman of the committee Senator Warner remarked that “American adversaries” are looking to “sow discord” in America. As an example, he referred to “Iranian operatives” who “infiltrated” the protests against the genocide in Palestine. He remarked that Russia, China, and Iran are looking to influence elections by capitalizing on the “low trust that Americans have in the US government and traditional media.”
In 2016, the US media and political elite whipped up hysteria around so-called Russian interference in an election that saw Donald Trump elected president. Until now, such interference has not been substantiated. A 2023 study found that Russian bot accounts reached a miniscule fraction of the US population. Specifically, 1% of X (formerly Twitter) users accounted for 70% of exposures to such accounts. The study found no relationship between exposure to such accounts and attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior. In contrast, studies have shown that Donald Trump won because of mass outrage at the entrenched political establishment.
The Role of Tech Companies
Social media companies have a history of acting in accordance with US government policies. For example, investigations have shown that Meta systemically censors pro-Palestinian content on its platforms. This has only been exacerbated since October 7. Only between October and November 2023, Human Rights Watch documented over 1,050 post removals and other suppression of content about Palestine.
Tech companies also colluded with the government regarding the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, right before the election. The story in question was regarding emails that showed how Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, earned over $11 million between 2013 and 2018 in serving as a board member for Ukrainian energy firm, Burisma, and in working with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud. The emails do not indicate what work Hunter Biden conducted so as to warrant such vast sums of money, prompting allegations of corruption. When the story was published, X labelled it as “Russian disinformation” meant to influence the election. X executives later admitted that such censorship was a mistake.
Beyond these more direct means of shaping online discourse, social media platforms are also looking for ways to subtly and passively subvert political content online. In March 2024, Meta announced that it was introducing an option for users to limit how much “political content” they see. They defined political content as anything “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics”- a vast umbrella. Meta then made such a selection the default setting for all users. Users had to venture deep into the app to opt out of the change.
New Red Scare?
It is in this context that former Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, called for Americans who spread “Russian propaganda” to be indicted both on civil and criminal grounds. These events are just the latest in a series of repressive measures meant to silence those that criticize the US government and West’s policies. In the past year, the US government tried to ban TikTok entirely. In August 2025, Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov was arrested. Now, Blinken is trying to de facto erase entire media outlets off the map. With such a trajectory, free speech is becoming even more of a hypothetical principle as opposed to a protected right.
A.M.
