The effects of economic sanctions may be seen in the daily lives of Russians only with a delay, but in the digital world, the attacks are severe and are affecting most lives already.
Many global companies have boycotted Russia. Adobe Stock / AOP
The war in Ukraine has led numerous actors to relocate from Russia. These include giant companies, many of which are related to technology. The cessation of various online services has had a direct impact on the lives of those living in Russia.
On the equipment manufacturer side, giants like Microsoft, Apple and Samsung have announced that they will suspend supplies to Russia. Samsung has said that its circuits will no longer be shipped to Russia either, which will make equipment manufacturing significantly more difficult. Microsoft has again said that in addition to stopping exports of equipment, the service side has been pulled down in Russia. This makes it significantly more difficult to use the equipment in Russia.
Apple’s announcement to stop selling the device is tough because Counterpoint According to the survey, Iphone is the third best-selling phone brand in Russia.
Time will tell how device-side availability problems will affect if the current situation persists for a long time. In recent history, it is good to highlight the conflict between Huawei and the United States, which showed how far device restrictions can have. Prior to U.S. restrictions, Huawei was one of the world’s largest telephone manufacturers internationally. Following sanctions and a chip ban on the company, Huawei’s phones have virtually disappeared from Europe and the United States.
Existing component export restrictions could potentially affect the Russian arms industry. Indeed, the focus is strongly on China and how it wants to participate in events in Europe and Ukraine.
On the entertainment side, great restrictions
Search engine giant Google has also taken action against the Russian attack. Google has significantly changed the way Russian ads are displayed on search, Youtube, and other channels.
Google and Apple have still kept their app stores open In Russia. This has generally been seen as a good thing, as through app stores, Russians can download apps that can help tell what’s really going on. However, some individual applications such as Minecraft have removed the download option from the Russians.
On the music side, for example, Spotify has announced that it will close its office in Russia and begin restricting Russian content in its service. Content produced in Russia has been made harder to find and has been removed, but the music itself is still streaming in Russia.
Netflix, on the other hand, has announced that it will suspend its operations in Russia. Disney, Warner and Sony have announced they will suspend distribution of the films to Russia.
Also in the game world, various actors have expressed their views on the Russian attack. For example, giant studios such as Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, EA and Supercell have announced special operations in Russia. Activision Blizzard has restricted sales of its games in Russia, EA has eliminated Russian teams from its FIFA and NHL games, and Epic Games has restricted Russian players from participating in its official gaming tournaments.
Epic Games has stated that it does not want to deny Russians access to its games because the games can be used for communication. Supercell has announced to remove its game from app stores in Russia and Belarus.
The list of operators that have ceased operations and operations in Russia is long, and the list does not list almost all the companies that have withdrawn from the country. However, the closure of these companies is more or less reflected in the lives of millions of Russians, especially if the situation continues. Coupled with product and economic sanctions, the constraints of the digital world can be a severe blow to Russia and have a significant direct impact on the livelihoods of many citizens.
Russia’s own restrictions on the back pack
If the actions of foreign companies are already felt in people’s everyday lives, then on top of that, the Russian state has significantly restricted the digital lives of its citizens. Censorship is very harsh and state-run channels publish propaganda in their media, giving a completely different picture of the war.
Among other things, Russia has blocked the operation of news agencies in the country. For example, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and RFR / RL are blocked in the country. In this way, citizens will have to rely largely on what the state news media say about the war.
If the people are concerned that the news media cannot be trusted, they will turn to social media. In Russia, too, this activity has been blocked. It was only recently that Russia announced that citizens would no longer have access to Instagram. This was a tough place for many Russian celebrities whose livelihoods are largely caught up in Instagram content.
Russia has also blocked access to Facebook and Twitter before. Twitter in particular has been a really important channel for informing and sharing news. Indeed, Twitter recently announced that it will bring its own version of Twitter to the dark web, which the Russians will be able to access with the Tor browser.
It is still too early to say how the boycotts will affect the 145 million citizens of Russia in the big picture, but the change is certainly already visible. It has been suggested that Russia plans to secede from the global Internet. If this scenario materializes, the effects could be catastrophic. The global Internet is one of the only major unifying factors, despite Russian censorship. If this bridge is burned, going back to the time before the attack is really hard.