A group of Russian politicians has put forward a bill aimed at punishing foreign social media firms for discriminating against Russian media outlets. In recent months, RT and others have been censored on networks like Twitter.
The parliamentarians, including MP Alexander Khinshtein and Senator Alexey Pushkov, have proposed punishing social media networks that display prejudice on the basis of nationality, language, or anti-Russia sanctions. If found guilty, the websites could be fined or even blocked entirely.

In August, California-based Twitter took action against RT and other state-funded Russian media outlets, subjecting their accounts to a shadow ban. This means they are now undiscoverable via the website’s search function. Twitter also began labeling several Russian sources as “state-affiliated media,” despite not doing so for certain foreign equivalents, such as America’s state-run RFERL and Britain’s BBC.