Twitter labels Sputnik Turkey journalists' accounts as 'Russia state-controlled media'

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As part of its efforts to restrict Russia's state-run media outlets amid its invasion of Ukraine, Twitter has labeled Sputnik Turkey journalists as "Russia state-controlled media."

The news coordinator, Elif Sudazeger, and Onur Özovalı, a video editor, are among the labeled journalists.

"Are you idiots? I'm a 20-year-old inoffensive boy," Özovalı wrote on Twitter.

Another labeled journalist, Anıl Tuncer, said he had left his job at Sputnik eight months ago and currently works for the Diken news portal.

The labeled journalists have become targets of harassment, said Free Web Turkey, a group monitoring online censorship.

Those journalists who have been labeled by Twitter have already begun to be the targets of online harrassment.

— Free Web Turkey (@FreeWebTurkey) March 1, 2022

Twitter previously labeled the accounts of Sputnik and RT and stated that it would restrict the reach of these outlets.

Accusing those outlets of disinformation, Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, said on Sunday (February 27) that "We'll ban the Kremlin's media machine in the EU." (HA/VK)