MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2020) Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian media conglomeration that includes Sputnik, expects Twitter to apply a new labeling system that flags state-affiliated media outlets and their senior staff equally in order to avoid double standards, the press department of the agency said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the microblogging platform announced that it would label accounts that represent state-affiliated media agencies, as well as their editors-in-chief and other members of senior staff.
"We are closely following the developing situation and we are waiting for Twitter to begin, in order to avoid accusations of double standards, to label the US Radio Liberty, the British BBC, and the German Deutsche Welle in the same way. This corresponding request has already been sent to Twitter by our correspondents," the agency said.
Commenting on the latest developments, Rossiya Segodnya's director general, Dmitry Kiselev, said that Russia is not ashamed of its tradition of state-run media outlets, which are also prominent elsewhere in Europe.
"Unlike the United States, we are not ashamed of our government. State media outlets are a European tradition. They are in France and Italy. The UK's BBC survives on taxes collected by the state. Does Twitter wish to deprive its users of choice?" Kiselev said to Sputnik on Thursday evening.
As of Thursday evening, multiple accounts linked to Rossiya Segodnya, including Sputnik and RIA Novosti, have already been tagged on Twitter as "Russia state-affiliated media."�
This feature will first be rolled out to agencies from the five countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, France, China, the US, and the UK.
State-affiliated media outlets from these countries will also be removed from recommendation lists seen by users, Twitter said.
