The network has been accused of violating “local laws”
RT’s Russian-language Telegram channel has apparently been blocked in Ukraine as some users reported having problems accessing it on Monday.
The channel can no longer be accessed from Ukraine due to “violation of local laws,” according to the notice displayed on the platform. Telegram did not specify which terms of service have been violated.
At the same time, some users from Ukraine later said they were still able to access the channel as of Monday afternoon.
The channel Special_Authors, which reposts content produced by RT, has also been blocked.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that people in the Czech Republic were also experiencing difficulties reading RT Russian and Special_Authors channels, with the same notice from Telegram that the content had broken local laws.
Kiev and the EU have banned multiple Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, since 2022, citing the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict and accusing the Kremlin of using the media for “desinformation.”
READ MORE: Ukrainian diplomats panic over RT microphone
In September, US tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, banned several Russian networks, including RT, from its platforms. The move came after Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the outlet as a “de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.
Moscow has accused the Western governments of censorship and attempts to silence dissenting voices. Russia responded to the sanctions by banning a number of Western media outlets, including state-funded broadcasters BBC and the Voice of America.
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