The experts unanimously agree: RT is managing to circumvent Europe’s sanctions because of failings in their application by the national authorities - including Arcom in France. The lack of coordination between European institutions is also an important factor, Reporters Without Borders writes.
RT’s presence in France is the most blatant. Yet the non-implementation of European sanctions by internet service providers and search engine companies, such as Google, is a larger problem. According to analyses by the Comité Diderot – a network of academics, experts and media professionnals — that were sent to Arcom and the French Treasury last January, versions of RT (in English, German, Spanish and Arabic) are accessible in France, without a VPN, on over 50 sites and social media accounts. Surveys carried out by the Comité Diderot show the RT situation is similar, if not worse, in countries such as Germany and Portugal.
In the meantime, RT continues the exact activity the EU was trying to sanction, namely, “a systematic, international campaign of disinformation, information manipulation and distortion of facts in order to enhance its strategy of destabilisation of its neighbouring countries, the EU and its member states.”