Amid increasing scrutiny over online advertising possibly funded by foreign governments, Twitter Inc. has decided to ban all ads from media organizations Russia Today and Sputnik, both of which have been linked to the Russian government.

In a statement on its blog, Twitter announced that it has made the decision to get rid of all ads immediately from accounts owned by RT and Sputnik. The company cited a report by the U.S. intelligence community, which concluded that the two media organizations contributed to Russia’s efforts to affect the 2016 U.S. presidential election by “serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.”

“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,” Twitter said in its statement. According to the company, the decision does not currently affect any other advertisers, and both RT and Sputnik will be allowed to remain as organic Twitter users “in accordance with the Twitter Rules.”

Twitter said that it will take the $1.9 million in earnings that it had projected for RT’s advertisements and donate the funds toward supporting better external research into “the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections, including use of malicious automation and misinformation, with an initial focus on elections and automation.”

The move to ban ads from RT and Sputnik is the latest in a series of efforts to fight back against criticisms that its response to Russia’s misinformation campaign had been “inadequate.” Earlier this week, Twitter also announced that it will launch a new “transparency center” that will give users more information about “who is advertising on Twitter, details behind those ads, and tools to share your feedback with us.”

Twitter has gone through several turbulent years since becoming a publicly traded company in 2013, but despite the recent controversies, the company seems to have stabilized. In its third-quarter earnings, which were posted today, Twitter revealed that its monthly active user base grew by 4 percent year-on-year, reaching more than 330 million users. Its daily active user base also grew by 14 percent.

The news was not all good, as the company’s third-quarter revenue fell 4 percent from a year ago, to $590 million, the third straight quarter of revenue decline for Twitter.

But shares soared more than 18 percent today as the company predicted it will make a profit in the fourth quarter. Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey (pictured) said in a statement that the company’s current focus is “making our service faster, easier to use, and more relevant to more people every day.”

Photo credit: Esten Hurtle (@esten) for Twitter