Twitter bans Russian government-owned news sites RT, Sputnik from buying ads

WASHINGTON - 26 October 2017: Twitter is banning two Russian government-affiliated news sites from advertising on its platform, the social network said Thursday.

Twitter said its decision to block advertising from the sites stemmed from the conclusion of the US national intelligence report in January that said that the Kremlin used the sites Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, along with a far-flung network of “quasi-government trolls,” to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election, The Washington Post reported.

“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 said in a blog post.