Two of Russia’s biggest media outlets, Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, has been banned from Twitter because of buying advertising that attempted to disrupt the 2016 US election.

Former FBI director, Rob Muellar, has started to investigate into possible links between Russia and Trump.

Twitter said in a statement: “The decision was based on the retrospective work we’ve been doing around the 2016 US election and the US intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government.

“We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter.”

Sputnik told AFP news agency it “has never used advertising on Twitter”.

Russia has denied all claims that it interfered in the 2016 elections.

Twitter will donate an estimated US$1.9million made from the outlets into research on its use in “civic engagement and elections”.

Written by Leah Alger