Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik and RT, said that Facebook's suspension of accounts operated by Maffick Media over ties to RT was a sign of 'open geopolitical confrontation," where media platforms are being used as "tools
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2019) Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik and RT, said that Facebook's suspension of accounts operated by Maffick Media over ties to RT was a sign of 'open geopolitical confrontation," where media platforms are being used as "tools."
On Friday, Facebook suspended pages of projects run by Maffick Media, which is partly owned by the Ruptly video agency, a subsidiary of RT. Facebook did not give Maffick Media any prior warning. According to Maffick's statement, the social network was "pressured" into doing this by CNN, which ran a story on Maffick Media and its perceived ties to the Kremlin.
"Obviously, things will be getting only worse. Nobody even tries to believe in any freedom or talk about any freedom. This has already become an open geopolitical confrontation, where media platforms ... serve as tools," Simonyan said.
Facebook said it would ask Soapbox, Back Then and Waste-Ed to submit information on their affiliations. However, the social network has not, until now, required accounts to disclose information about their parent companies. Maffick remarked in its statement that plenty of media outlets supported in part by governments do not post information about their funding on their Facebook pages.
