Meta Suspends African Stream Accounts Following U.S. State Department’s Accusation

Social media company Meta has banned African Stream, a pan-African digital media organisation, days after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced sanctions against Russian state broadcaster RT and other non-western-aligned media platforms, which he accused without evidence of operating under Russian influence.

African Stream’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have been suspended, adding to the suspension of its YouTube account a day before. Prior to the ban, African Stream had a cumulative following of over 1 million across its Meta pages.

Meta’s ban on African Stream comes as the latest in a series of bans, suspensions and algorithmic content suppression efforts targeting non-US-government aligned speech, viewpoints and opinions on American-owned social media companies.

Blinken made the accusation – without any evidence – during a press conference on Friday where he said:

“RT also secretly runs the online platform African Stream across a wide range of social media platforms.”

In its description on its website, the Nairobi-based media organisation says: “African Stream is a pan-African digital media organisation providing a voice to Africans at home and abroad through cutting-edge, African-centred content.”

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

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