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International business is leaving Russia. Global tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Apple, remain largely open for business there.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy giants announced plans to halt oil and gas exploration projects in the country. Several automakers said they would stop making or selling vehicles in Russia. Banks have largely excluded Russia from the global financial system.
But Russians still swipe their iPhones, surf YouTube and chat on WhatsApp and Telegram. That could change. The Russian government is trying to tighten its control over foreign technology companies. And Apple said on Tuesday it has stopped selling its products in Russia.
A tricky question remains: are Ukraine and global democracy better served if major tech services remain, or – as Ukrainian leaders have argued – if Russia is treated as a pariah and cut off from popular digital services? Today’s newsletter outlines the pros and cons.
First, the history of technology in conflict zones:
Writing this week, my colleagues Adam Satariano and Sheera Frenkel said Ukraine provides an opportunity for tech companies to “show they can use their technology for good in a way not seen since the Arab Spring in 2011, when social media activists clashed with each other. and was acclaimed as a tool for democracy.”
In the years since those civil uprisings, tech companies have sometimes failed to devote the resources and care to stand up resolutely for people trapped in conflict zones or at the mercy of autocratic governments in countries like Myanmar, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.
Allies of Aleksei A. Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition politician, last year criticized Apple and Google for heeding government demands to take down an app designed to coordinate protest voting in Russian elections.
This time it seems to be different. Tech companies seem more willing to take sides and support Ukraine.
The power of leaving:
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, has used his Twitter account to shame Facebook, Google, Apple and Netflix into stopping or limiting their tech services in Russia. According to Fedorov, this could provoke the Russians to revolt against their government’s invasion.
“By 2022, modern technology may be the best answer to the tanks” and other weapons, he said wrote in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Social media in Russia and beyond are also hotbeds of pro-Kremlin propaganda that portrays Ukrainians as defrauding the aggressors and citizens about their government’s actions in Ukraine.
Why staying can help:
David Kaye, a law professor and former United Nations special rapporteur on free speech, told me that at least right now it would be a mistake for tech companies to leave Russia.
Kaye said the harm from false or distorted information circulating online in Russia is relatively minor compared to the productive ways Russian citizens, activists and journalists used YouTube, Telegram, Signal, Instagram and smartphones from Google and Apple.
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March 2, 2022, 2:01 PM ET
These technologies expose Russians to information beyond government propaganda and contradict the state narrative of the war. (Ukrainians also use social media to ridicule Russian troops, rally foreigners to their cause, and share security information.)
“While I fully agree with the idea that US and international companies should resist involvement with Russia at this point, there are some companies that provide communications to people who really need it,” Kaye said.
Nothing is easy in a war, and Kaye was quick to add, “I realize this can have drawbacks and we need to think about it.”
The risks associated with it:
By supporting the US or European governments against Russia, there is a risk that companies will appear to be a puppet of the West. That could be counterproductive for Russian dissidents and journalists, and hurt the relationships of technology companies in other countries.
While a stay can endanger the employees of technology companies. Russia is among the countries enacting so-called landing laws that make local employees of foreign companies more vulnerable to fines, arrests or other penalties if their companies fail to comply with government requirements.
Ultimately, it may not be the big tech companies that decide their future in Russia. It has been difficult for Russians to use Facebook and Twitter because the government has cut internet speeds to those websites and apps. Adam said YouTube could be next.
War Between Russia and Ukraine: Important Things to Know
Map 1 of 4
A critical city. Pressure from Russia to take key Ukrainian cities accelerated on the seventh day of the invasion, with Russia claiming its forces had Kherson under control, though Ukraine disputed the claim. More explosions hit Kiev and the siege of the city of Kharkiv continued.
Russian convoy. Satellite images show a 40-mile Russian military convoy on a roadway north of Kiev, with a number of houses and buildings nearby. Experts fear the convoy could be used to encircle and cut off the capital or launch a full-scale attack.
The Kremlin, Adam said, “will rather make the ‘should we leave’ decision” for the tech companies.
There is also a related and difficult question, which I will leave aside today, about what the big tech companies outside of Russia should be doing – particularly with Russian state media such as RT or other sources of propaganda. Twitter became the latest internet company on Wednesday to curb Russian state media within the European Union.
One last thought:
I am often wary of treating tech companies as a special species ignored by normal business rules. But as this war shows, global information and communication services are really not like cars or barrels of oil.
Tech companies are for-profit corporations that are not accountable to the public, and yet they have grown so powerful that they now serve as mini-state ministries.
Before we go…
Coders to the World: Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal write that the Russian invasion threatens the lives and jobs of Ukraine’s large tech workforce, whose software is used worldwide by popular video games, major banks and automakers. (Subscriptions may be required.)
The good and bad of TikTok at war: The stream of war footage in the short video app was an important way for outsiders to see and understand what is happening in Ukraine. But Wired says TikTok’s immediacy, reach and computer-generated sorting make it particularly difficult to separate truth from fiction in war. (A subscription may be required.)
Related: An online video of Zhenya Perepelitsa, a Ukrainian soldier, reciting from a Persian love poem struck a chord with Iranians and Ukrainians (and me).
Fitbit, Google’s internet-connected gadget company, has recalled more than a million of its smartwatches. Fitbit said it received more than 100 reports of burns caused by overheating batteries in its Ionic watches.
Hug for this
Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Zaila Avant-garde was also a star at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. She’s just as great on a float like she is playing games and playing basketball.
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