Russia Today taken off DStv until further notice

MultiChoice has confirmed that as of Tuesday, Russia Today (Channel 407) will not be carried on the DStv platform “until further notice”.

“Sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union has led to the global distributor of the channel ceasing to provide the broadcast feed to all suppliers, including MultiChoice,” said MultiChoice in a statement on Tuesday evening.

The announcement has received mixed reactions from South Africans, who have taken to social media to voice their opinions.

“Russia Today has gone from freeview. I was in two minds on this but having watched it on and off over the last few days I think it’s the right decision. All pretence at balance was gone. It was pure, unabashed lies and disinformation. And Russia needs to be attacked on all fronts,” tweeted Otto English, as others slam the announcement.

The channel is still available in other African countries.

This comes a few days after Google blocked YouTube channels connected to Russia Today and Sputnik across Europe, in a move to stop the spread of “misinformation” and disrupt disinformation campaigns online.

“This builds on our indefinite pause of monetization of Russian state-funded media across our platforms, meaning media outlets such as RT are not allowed to monetise their content or advertise on our platforms,” said Google on Monday.

It has also limited recommendations globally for a number of Russian state-funded media outlets across its platforms, with YouTube having removed hundreds of channels and thousands of videos for violating its community guidelines, including a number of channels engaging in “coordinated deceptive practices”.

“Of course we are working to not just reduce the reach of unreliable information, but also to make reliable and trustworthy information readily available. Our systems are built to prioritize the most authoritative information in moments of crisis and rapidly-changing news. When people around the world search for topics related to the war in Ukraine on Search or YouTube, our systems prominently surface information, videos and other key context from authoritative news sources,” said global affairs president Kent Walker.