Russia Today's Twitter suspended as social media site says 'account withheld'

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The Twitter account of the Russian state-controlled international news television network Russia Today has been suspended (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The Twitter account of the Russian state-controlled international news television network Russia Today has been suspended (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

The Twitter account of the Russian state-controlled international news television network Russia Today has been suspended.

The account for the Kremlin-funded media site has been suspended in a number of countries amid controversies over its coverage.

The Twitter profile now shows a blank white page, with no picture or logo as well as no verified blue tick.

A small block of text explains that the account has been withheld in a number of countries, including the UK and a large number of other European ones.

It says: "@RT_com's account has been withheld in Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Germany, Greece, Romania, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria, Luxembourg, Latvia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Lithuania, Croatia, Estonia, Cyprus, France, Spain, Belgium in response to a legal demand."

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Russia Today's Twitter suspended as social media site says 'account withheld'The logo of RT from the screen of a smartphone (Muhammed Ibrahim Ali/IMAGESLIVE via ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)

Back in October, Russia Today’s controversial editor-in-chief reached out to Twitter CEO Elon Musk personally and requested that he release her network from Twitter purgatory.

Margarita Simonyan said: “Elon, since you’re all for free speech, maybe unban RT and Sputnik accounts and take the shadow ban off mine as well.”

RT is a horrific backer of the country’s invasion of Ukraine and Ms Simonyan once celebrated the deliberate targeting of civilians in Kyiv.

A chilling segment on RT also saw a Kremlin propagandist arguing in favour of drowning Ukrainian children in rivers and burning them in their own homes.

Russia Today's Twitter suspended as social media site says 'account withheld'Russia Today’s controversial editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan (Russia Media Monitor/Youtube)

RT's Director of Broadcasting Anton Krasovsky suggested that any child who believes their country is being occupied by Russia needs to be thrown into a fast river and drowned alive.

His other suggestion was to put the children into wooden houses, nail the doors shut and burn them alive.

"They should have been drowned in the Tysyna River, right there where the ducklings swim," he says with a smirk on his face.

"Just drown those children. Drown them."

Rachel Hagan

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