Twitter has banned advertisements from accounts owned by Russian media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, citing allegations by US intelligence agencies that the two had tried to interfere with the 2016 US election.
RT and Sputnik condemned the decision on Thursday, saying Twitter had encouraged ad spending, while Russia's foreign ministry said the ban was the result of US government pressure and that it was planning a response.
San Francisco-based Twitter said in an unsigned statement on its website that election meddling is "not something we want" on the social network and that it had also done its own investigations of RT and Sputnik.
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Twitter said it would take the estimated $US1.9 million ($A2.5 million) it had earned from RT global advertising since 2011 and donate the money "to support external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections".
The company said it would allow RT and Sputnik to maintain regular, non-ad Twitter accounts in accordance with its rules.
In addition to Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet's Google have recently detected that suspected Russian operatives used their platforms last year to purchase ads and post content that was politically divisive. Russia has denied interfering in the election.
RT, an English-language news channel, fired back at Twitter on Thursday, saying on its website that Twitter's sales staff had pressured the Russian outlet in 2016 to spend big on advertising ahead of the election.
This Wednesday, April 26, 2017, photo shows the Twitter app on a mobile phone in Philadelphia. Source: AAP
RT also said on its website that it had never been involved in illegal activity online and "never pursued an agenda of influencing the US election through any platforms, including Twitter".
Sputnik, a news agency, said on its website that Twitter's move was regrettable, "especially now that Russia had vowed retaliatory measures against the US media".
Twitter said last month it had suspended about 200 Russian-linked accounts.
