After originally removing the Russia-backed news channel RT from its Roku Channel Store in Europe, Roku has announced that it will now remove the channel from its Roku Channel Store globally, including in the United States.
The decision comes after DirecTV made a similar step. DirecTV is “accelerating this year’s contract expiration schedule and will no longer deliver their programs effective immediately,” according to company representative Nicholas Ammazzalorso.
Despite the fact that DirecTV had already been debating whether or not to keep the channel on its service, the company has moved the deadline forward from mid-2022 due to the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine. The provider was earlier rumored to be dropping the channel by Axios.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the corporations have joined a number of other big content distributors in taking a stand against Russian-backed media. Netflix announced on Monday that it had “no plans” to add a number of state-run propaganda channels to its service, after being notified last year that it would be compelled to do so. Meanwhile, both RT and the Russian news station Sputnik have been restricted on YouTube in Europe.
