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Western governments have moved to heavily censor Russian foreign-language media in connection with the conflict in Ukraine, shutting down websites, radio and television broadcasts, and blocking or otherwise limiting access to Sputnik and RT on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Twitter's labeling of the accounts of Sputnik employees amounts to a "witch hunt," the news agency has said.

"[This is] another outrageous step on the part of the US social network, a witch hunt and a direct persecution of our journalists," the agency said in a statement.

Earlier, the US social media giant began to assign the accounts of Sputnik staff special markings to indicate that they work for state-owned media, supposedly "to provide more context and ensure transparency."

In its statement, Sputnik said it looked forward to similar markings appearing on the accounts of journalists from the BBC, DW and other Western state media.

The move by Twitter is the latest attack on Russian media by Western governments and internet giants.

Earlier, Sputnik's Instagram, Facebook and TikTok accounts were restricted across Europe, with Instagram citing "an order from the government, court or other authority." Microsoft removed the RT news app from its Windows store, deranked Sputnik and RT in Bing results, and removed Sputnik and RT content from MSN and Microsoft Start. Separately, Google banned the app of RT's Russian-language service in Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Google Europe moved to block YouTube channels "connected to RT and Sputnik" across the bloc, "effective immediately."

Sputnik's local language websites are also facing growing censorship pressure, becoming unavailable without the use of a VPN service across multiple countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Moldova.

On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to "ban in the EU the Kremlin's media machine," and said that "the state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our union."