UK sanctions Belarusian internet propaganda

New sanctions in the United Kingdom will block Belarusian media organizations from supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine by spreading propaganda online in Britain, the government announced on Thursday.

Social media companies, app stores and internet service providers operating in Britain will be obliged to prevent the designated Belarusian organizations from reaching audiences in the country.

A similar block was introduced for Russian media organizations, including TV-Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya — the state-funded entities behind RT and Sputnik — last April, among sanctions targeting more than 1,000 other individuals and businesses.

The legislation included “preventing provision of internet services to or for the benefit of designated persons” and introduced a power for the communications regulator Ofcom to fine companies up to £1 million ($1.26 million) for failing to comply with the sanctions.

In the weeks after the invasion, Ofcom also revoked RT’s broadcast license as the broadcaster faced 29 ongoing investigations into its impartiality — a legal requirement for news broadcasters in Britain — although the channel was already off air by then due to EU sanctions.

The Foreign Office said the new measures “provide the government with the ability to prevent designated Belarusian media companies from spreading propaganda in the UK.”

Under the new designation criteria, the government’s sanctions will target “a broader range of people who prop up the [Lukashenko] regime,” including the “close family members of those already sanctioned.”

Back in 2020, the U.K. imposed sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — alongside his son and other senior government officials — for what the Foreign Office said was a rigged election and the violent suppression of subsequent protests calling for Lukashenko’s removal.

Belteleradiocompany, the state-owned Belarusian broadcaster, was excluded from the European Broadcasting Union in 2021 after broadcasting images of what appeared to be tortured political prisoners apologizing for participating in protests against the regime.

Announcing the sanctions, Britain's Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, said: “This new package ratchets up the economic pressure on Lukashenko and his regime which actively facilitates the Russian war effort and ignores Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“Our support for Ukraine will remain resolute for as long as it takes and the UK will not hesitate to introduce further measures against those who prop up Putin’s war.”

Beyond propaganda on state-controlled media, Belarusian actors have been blamed for information operations targeting foreign countries, including the Ghostwriter campaign which Mandiant assessed with high confidence was linked to the Belarusian government.