If 'DoS Could Ban Us From Breathing, It Would' - RT Editor-in-Chief

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said Thursday she was not surprised that RT's Facebook account was partially blocked for the period that covers the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump because of a copyright infringement claim lodged by a Washington-funded broadcaster.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, RT reported that its Facebook page had been blocked until January 21 from leaving posts containing videos, images and links, effectively preventing RT from broadcasting Trump's inauguration on Facebook.

According to the screenshots, uploaded by RT, Facebook was notified during RT's broadcast of outgoing US President Barack Obama's press conference that the stream contained content belonging to Nastoyashee Vremya TV channel, a joint project of Radio Svoboda and Voice of America, both funded by Washington.

"I am not surprised. If the [US] State Department could ban us from breathing, it would," Simonyan told RIA Novosti.

The RT editor-in-chief also said that the broadcaster had already appealed to Facebook, asking to lift the ban, but without result, and would keep fighting to be unblocked.

Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!