The ban marks a sharp escalation in actions by the world's biggest social media company against Russian state media after it spent years taking more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts, Reuters reported.

"After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity," the social media company said in a written statement.

The company said on Tuesday the ban would take effect over the coming days.

Earlier this month, U.S. prosecutors filed money laundering charges against two RT employees in connection with what they said was a multi-million-dollar scheme to produce online content to influence November’s vote for the White House.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that countries should treat the activities of Russian state broadcaster RT in the same way as they do covert intelligence operations, Reuters wrote.