The piece of legislation was adopted in the US in 1938 to counter pro-Nazi agitation on US soil. Washington has made the decision to apply the act towards the company that supplies all services for RT America on its territory, including TV production and operations. Just over 400 entities are currently registered under the legislation, but it does not include a single media outlet.
The move "will have serious legal consequences" and "compromise the safety of [RT] employees," the Russian Foreign Ministry previously explained.
RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said on Thursday that the timeframe provided for the company by the DoJ is a "cannibalistic deadline."
She previously said that the channel was being forced into "conditions in which we cannot work" in the US, and called Washington's demand an attempt to "drive [RT] out of the country."
Comment: This is a clear attempt to drive RT out of the US because of its ability to report on the true nature of what the US government is doing. The irony is that forcing RT out of America is pointless because RT is not dependent on having a physical presence in the USA to spread the truth.