An American fringe social media platform commonly used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists has become the new home of Russian state propaganda arm, RT, despite being required to list as a foreign agent by the U.S. Department of Justice in September 2017 and RT's widespread deplatforming from sites including YouTube after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1]
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The primary landing page on the platform is dominated by RT results. According to repeated testing by MEMRI DTTM researchers on May 25, 2023, nearly two-thirds of the results on the page were RT videos.
Likewise, the platforms top videos of the past week highlight the reach of RT content on the platform. The two top videos are RT content covering fighting in Belgorod, Russia, and the attempted attack on the White House by a man with a neo-Nazi flag. Both videos had over four times the number of views as the next most viewed video on the platform.
RT's position on the platform is further exemplified by its dominance of the platofrm's News category algorithm, where all promoted videos are RT clips.
[1] Thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/350226-russian-network-rt-must-register-as-foreign-agent-in, September 12, 2023; Theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/22/rt-ban-youtube-videos-google-disinformation, February 22, 2023.
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