American social media giants recently banned Russia’s national broadcaster RT news. Earlier, they had banned RT from running ads on their platforms after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. Now, Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, banned the media outlet saying it acted as an arm of Moscow’s spy agencies.
Meta declared: “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets.”
“RT is now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.”
Earlier, US officials had accused RT of carrying out covert information warfare operations around the world on behalf of Russia’s spy agencies.
YouTube also followed Meta’s lead. YouTube on Monday also removed hundreds of channels with ties to Russian government-backed media. The platform began blocking Russian state-sponsored news channels globally two years back, including those tied to RT and Sputnik. Over the years, according to YouTube, the platform has blocked thousands of channels and millions of videos.
You see, US media giants will boot you out if you don’t peddle their agenda. This social media censorship is real and as intense as financial restrictions that the US imposes on rival nations. The supremacy of US dollar allows US to cut off any nation from global finance network and international trading system. Similarly, the supremacy of US social media giants gives US the absolute power to control the narrative and crush dissenting voices on their platforms. You can only survive on these platforms as long as you amplify the agenda set by Washington DC.
But looks like BRICS may soon come up with a solution to this problem. Just like how BRICS is working on developing a new currency to counter US dollar, it has also revealed its plans to deploy a new social media tool to counter the US big tech.
Russoft, which is Russia’s largest software developers association, has now declared that new social media platform will emerge within the next year or two.
Valentin Makarov, the president of Russoft, recently said, “I believe that within the next year or two, we will see the emergence of such platforms across various BRICS countries. Not only Russia, but also India, Brazil, and China have the technological ability to create such networks. Early examples of collaboration, such as with India, demonstrate that we have found a mutual model of cooperation that benefits both sides, where each party maintains its independence while collectively fostering the independence of BRICS countries.”
It is to be noted that America’s big tech industry is powered by Indian IT regime and human resources. For Indian IT sector, creating a super app that could counter US big tech’s hegemony won’t be a herculean task.
BRICS is already expanding co-operation in the economic arena. Now, once a BRICS social media platform is launched, it will bring people of global south together and also those who have had enough of Western censorship.
