The EU sanctions do not provide for control and supervision of the distribution of the content of Russian media, which fell under the prohibition of broadcasting, broadcasting and distribution.

This is evidenced by a survey among 17 European media regulators regarding the application of sanctions against Russian media, which was conducted by the Ukrainian National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting with the support of the secretariat of the European Platform for Regulatory Authorities (EPRA).

"Sanctions are directed against the economic and financial activities of legal entities and individuals of the aggressor state. That is, they do not impose direct obligations on the media regulatory bodies regarding the supervision of the content of mass media that have fallen under the prohibition of broadcasting, broadcasting and distribution," the National Council clarified.

Because of this, Russian media content is freely distributed through social networks. According to the results of the survey, major digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, X and Telegram do not respond to requests from media regulators in EPRA member countries about sub-sanctioned channels or the content they produce. The majority of EPRA members noted that the platforms' actions are not fast enough and are not appropriate.

In addition, another problem is the possibility of registering Russian media in European countries that are not EU members. In this way, Russian disinformation can spread in the EU in a cross-border manner and bypass sanctions.

"In view of this, the National Council plans to initiate further consultations with its European partners to stop the spread in Europe of materials containing war propaganda, justification of aggression and war crimes, incitement to genocide and terrorist acts against civilians," the National Council reported.

As a reminder, Science Feedback and Alliance4Europe recently published a report that Telegram continues to make content created by Russian state media and media persons under sanctions available to a European audience. As of September, 37 accounts of sanctioned Russian media and bloggers with a total audience of 7.7 million people were found in the messenger.