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U.S. Congress TV Says 'Error' Caused Brief Interruption By RT


C-SPAN broadcasts live sessions of the U.S. Congress and other public affairs programs.

The U.S. congressional cable television broadcaster says it has investigated an interruption of its programming by a Russian state broadcaster on January 12 and determined it was caused by "an internal routing error."

"We don't believe we were hacked" by Russia's RT broadcaster, tweeted C-SPAN, which carries live broadcasts of congressional sessions, hearings, speeches, and other public events.

"We take our network security very seriously and will continue with a deeper investigation, which may take some time," it added.

The interruption occurred in midafternoon while C-SPAN was broadcasting a U.S. House discussion on securities law.

RT programming shown on C-SPAN lasted about seven minutes. It included a segment of the English-language program Worlds Apart hosted by Oksana Boyko discussing the U.S. election.

"While America is still overcome by an emotional response many around the world are taking a critical look at the latest U.S. election to see if their own approach to electoral politics needs to be revisited," Boyko said during the interruption.

A U.S. intelligence assessment released last week said RT played a role in a campaign to influence the U.S. presidential election through the spread of "propaganda" and "fake news."

With reporting by dpa
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