Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said on Monday that there is little Russian influence activity on social media platform X.
"We don’t see a lot of Russian activity, to be frank, on the system. We see very little," Musk said during a so-called Space on X.
The platform experiences attempts to influence discourse, but the attempts appear to originate in the West, not Russia, Musk said.
Russia restricted access to X, then known as Twitter, prior to Musk’s acquisition of the company, in response to the platform restricting Russian media and government accounts and failing to take down material considered illegal in Russia.
The platform is not banned in Russia, but rather, operates under a special management regime, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said last year.
After the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, major Russian media outlets were blocked or shadowbanned in Western countries, despite the right to freedom of speech and information, which "shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers," according to the European Commission.
Thus, as of April 2024, RT and Sputnik broadcasts are blocked or limited in all countries of the European Union, the US, Canada and several other countries.
Moreover, Russian media accounts are subject to shadowbans on X, as well as Meta's* Facebook and Instagram, and are also marked with a special label “Russian state-controlled media.” YouTube has also blocked all Russian channels associated with the state around the world, according to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Stories from Russian media were lowered in Google search results, leading to loss from 90% to 95% of traffic. Preference for the most popular queries is given to opposition Russian-language media, the ministry noted.
Access to Russian channels is also limited on Facebook, TikTok (RT and Sputnik channels are blocked) and the Spotify streaming service.
*Meta and its products Instagram and Facebook are banned in Russia over extremist activities.