Tech giants face Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Some of the major technology companies, mainly American, reacted in various ways to the outbreak of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24. Between securing their staff on site, fighting disinformation in a context of war and messages to the Ukrainian population.

The hell of disinformation on social networks in times of war

Social networks in particular play a particular role in the conflict being played out in Eastern Europe. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, are already known and criticized for being vectors of misinformation.

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In times of war, rumours, attempts to influence public opinion, to destabilize the adversary, the fight against fake news become all the greater issues. Social networks can also be used as an open source of information by belligerents and put their users in difficulty.

Meta, Twitter and ByteDance react promptly

Meta, through the voice of Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs and Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Facebook, has, more than its competitors, described the measures deployed to deal with the situation in Ukraine.

A “special operation center” has been set up, it is ” composed of experts (including native speakers) so that we can monitor the situation closely and act as quickly as possible “, explains Nathaniel Gleicher. Nick Clegg clarified that this center will have the function of suppressing hate speech and incitement to violence as quickly as possible.

Meta’s VP explained, ” We have implemented a number of measures to keep our platform and our users in the region as safe as possible. “. Mark Zuckerberg’s company activated a feature already used in Afghanistan in August, when the country was taken over by the Taliban. It aims to ensure the confidentiality of users, by preventing the downloading of profile photos or the sharing of publications from an account of which the user is not a friend.

Twitter, for its part, stood out on February 23 by removing certain accounts specializing in open source research, following the progress of Russian troops. An error explained the social network, related to the anticipation of the dissemination of false information that is not lacking.

The platform’s official account started a long thread, in Ukrainian, about behaviors to adopt to protect yourself, ” When using Twitter in conflict or other high-risk areas “. It is a suite of practical advice against hacking, for example the activation of two-factor authentication, the confidentiality of accounts, limiting geolocation data, etc.

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, responded to TechCrunchthan ” The safety of our community and our employees is our top priority “. The social network, which is very popular in Ukraine, explained that it took ” measures on content or behavior that threatens the security of our platform, in particular by removing content that contains harmful misinformation “.

Shelter employees based in Ukraine

Google is in a delicate situation with its YouTube platform. Appreciated in Russia, the platform notably welcomes a pro-Vladimir Putin Russian journalist, Vladimir Solovyov. The latter is on the list of personalities sanctioned by the European Union, note Bloomberg. In December the platform was ordered to pay a fine for blocking an account of a user reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, enough to tug the platform.

Mountain View has often argued that YouTube is just as much a voice for opposition to Putin in Russia. For the moment, the platform has not taken an official position. According to TechCrunch it employs approximately 200 people in Ukraine, in research and development for its global and local services.

Moving away from social networks, Uber, established in 9 Ukrainian cities since 2016, offered to relocate its employees living in Kiev elsewhere in Ukraine or abroad. For users and drivers, the advice given is to stay at home. The company’s operations have been paused in the country. The company said ” A multifunctional team is monitoring the situation very closely and will restore service as soon as it is safe to do so. “.

Apple, which has an office and a few employees on site, said it was doing everything for their teams on site. Group CEO Tim Cook tweeted, “ we will support local humanitarian efforts “.

TechCrunch, which contacted all major tech companies, American or not, for a detailed article, reports that Microsoft declined to comment. Amazon or Snapchat have not released a statement at this time.

It remains difficult to assess the impact of the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on the activity of the Tech giants in Russia. The country has its own social networks and American groups do not seem to fall within the scope of the measures taken, but uncertainty remains. Like the stock market as a whole, the prices of major Tech companies fell on February 24. However, they rose quickly.

In Ukraine, publicly or not, all the big Tech companies will have to make their arrangements, prepare for the evolution of the war there and in particular for a possible Internet shutdown. They should also expect to be criticized and taken to task. The Ukrainian government has asked Twitter to suspend Russia’s official account.



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