Google bans African media over alleged links to Russia Mr Blinken

MOSCOW. – Pan-African digital media organisation African Stream has accused Google of censorship after the American tech giant locked it out of the Gmail workspace.

The US government recently claimed the outlet is a Russian disinformation tool.

African Stream says it has faced censorship on several platforms since US officials labelled it a Kremlin propaganda channel

The move has resulted in the loss of access to two years of emails and files stored in the Google cloud storage facilities, the outlet said in a statement yesterday.

“Google did not provide any credible reason for banning us other than saying we ‘violated Google Workspace policy,’ which includes ‘sending spam or using the account for any kind of fraud,’” it stated.

African Stream has denied engaging in any of the alleged activities.

“We can only conclude they took us down based on US Secretary of State Mr Antony Blinken’s unsubstantiated allegation on 13 September that we are ‘Kremlin propagandists,’” it added.

During a press briefing last month, Mr Blinken claimed that Russia Today “secretly” operates the outlet, which has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, across a variety of social media platforms.

He alleged that while the organisation’s stated goal is to give a voice to Africans both at home and abroad, “in reality, the only voice it gives is to Kremlin propagandists.”

Yesterday African Stream reported that major tech companies had begun cracking down on it across platforms “shortly” after the US official’s comments.

Its YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok channels have been removed, and Stripe, a financial services provider, has blacklisted it.

“The US presents itself as a bastion of democracy. Integral to any healthy democracy is media freedom, allowing different viewpoints to be heard.

“But time and again, this basic ideal has been ridden roughshod over if it suits Washington,” African Stream wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“No evidence has been put forward to support the allegations made against us, yet we are being silenced on the biggest social-media platforms.

“Why do Africans articulating their concerns pose such a threat to the Western establishment?” it added.

Washington launched a major crackdown on Russia Today in September, accusing the channel of “functioning as a de facto arm of Russian intelligence.”

US State Department official Mr Jamie Rubin blamed Russia Today’s reporting for the fact that much of the world has not sided with Ukraine as Washington expected it to.

Moscow has branded the US sanctions against RT and other news outlets as a declaration of war on free speech. It says the US is moving from what it termed its values, in particular, free speech. – RT.com

 

You Might Also Like

Comments