X Banning Independent Media Accounts

Greetings World.

The X social media platform, suspends Going Underground account.

The TV program, which airs on RT, had over 160,000 followers on the platform X.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has suspended the account of Going Underground, an independent UAE-based TV production that airs on RT and covers geopolitics and current affairs. According to the notice shared with RT on Tuesday, the suspension came after the program’s account was reviewed by a human moderator and allegedly found to have violated the platform’s rules.

The notice stated, without further explanation. That “Going Underground TV has been suspended for violating X rules… specifically our rules against inauthentic behavior. You may not use our services to engage in inauthentic behavior that undermines the integrity of X.”

According to Going Underground, the suspension was followed by a complaint about the account reposting a clip from year-old RT report on Gaza. The report revolved around the enclave’s rich oil and gas resources, and the post offered these as the major reasons why US President Donald Trump has recently shown interest in taking control over Gaza.

In a notice also shared with RT, X informed Going Underground that it will be withholding the reported content in the EU “specifically for the following legal grounds: Scope of Platform Service,” apparently citing the EU Digital Services Act, which regulates digital data within the bloc. RT broadcasts have officially been banned in the EU since 2022.

Going Underground’s long-standing host Afshin Rattansi criticized X’s decision in a post on his personal account, calling on the platform’s executives, including Musk, to fix the situation.

“X has suspended the account of Going Underground TV with over 160,000 followers after over a decade of posting breaking news and our interviews with world leaders, dissidents, cultural icons and many more,” Rattansi wrote.

“Please rectify this. X was supposed to be the platform against censorship,” he added, asking his followers to repost this call.

Earlier the same day, an X account belonging to RT’s India branch, was suspended over allegedly unlawfully “impersonating” RT, a claim the channel has since denied, calling the situation “obviously unjust.”

RT has faced increasing pressure from the West ever since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow. Many of the channel’s branches faced closures abroad, and its online presence has suffered after platforms such as YouTube and TikTok removed or blocked RT accounts. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, banned RT and other Russian state-linked media outlets from its apps globally last year, following US sanctions against the channel, its Editor-in-Chief, Margarita Simonyan, and several top executives. Washington branded the channel as a tool of Russian government propaganda, a notion RT has repeatedly dismissed as unfounded.

The Social media platform X has also suspended the English-language account belonging to RT’s India branch. The suspension notice sent to RT India stated, that the account had allegedly violated the platform’s rules.

According to a statement posted on RT’s main X account, RT India has been accused of unlawfully “impersonating” RT, a claim the channel has denied. The post was accompanied by a screenshot of the suspension notice, in which X accused RT India, of “violating X rules against inauthentic accounts” and informed the branch that it “may not misappropriate the identity of individuals, groups, or organizations or use a fake identity to deceive others.”

The channel criticized the platform for the suspension, confirming that, “our sister channel RT India news… are very much not impersonating anyone,” and expressing hope the situation is “a simple misunderstanding.” In a later post, RT announced that “sadly, we have not yet got a response to rectify this obviously unjust situation with RT India” from X moderators and asked the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, to intervene.

The channel stated. “We hold every hope that X now operates in good faith: that this was an honest mistake, and the era of bans under absurd pretexts is forever behind us.”

RT has faced pressure from the West for years. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, many major Western broadcasters stopped airing RT channels. The EU placed a comprehensive ban on the channel and imposed sanctions on ANO, TV-Novosti, RT’s parent organization. The UK, France, and Germany froze the accounts of RT’s branches in their countries and closed their bureaus. RT’s online presence also suffered, with Google blocking RT sites from recommended services, YouTube removing RT accounts, and TikTok and Telegram blocking them across the EU, US, and Canada.

The pressure on the channel intensified further last year, when the US imposed sweeping sanctions against RT, its editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, and several top executives, branding the channel as a tool of Russian government propaganda. The US State Department has accused RT of playing a major role in eroding support for Ukraine around the world.

Following the sanctions, Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – banned RT and other Russian state-linked media outlets from its apps globally over what the company called “foreign interference activity.”

RT has taken the crackdown in its stride, and editor-in-chief Simonyan has pledged that the channel will “find ways to bypass” sanctions and bans. The outlet recently launched its new RT Balkan TV Channel, which started broadcasting from Belgrade in December 2024.

RT holds dozens of medals from the New York Festivals for its documentary and news programming, and has been repeatedly recognized by numerous international awards competitions and media organizations, including the Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards, the Cannes Lions, the Webby Awards, the Lovies, the Shorty Awards, the Association for International Broadcasting, and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.

RT is an autonomous, non-profit organization that is publicly financed from the budget of the Russian Federation.

For more information, you can contact RT from the given link: press@rttv.ru

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