{"id":17024,"date":"2022-02-26T16:11:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T16:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/26\/facebook-apple-twitter-youtube-face-pressure-over-russia-ukraine-war\/"},"modified":"2022-02-26T16:11:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T16:11:15","slug":"facebook-apple-twitter-youtube-face-pressure-over-russia-ukraine-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/26\/facebook-apple-twitter-youtube-face-pressure-over-russia-ukraine-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook, Apple, Twitter, YouTube face pressure over Russia-Ukraine war"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cWe need your support \u2014 in 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers \u2026 and missiles,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He also tweeted early Saturday that he had contacted Facebook parent company Meta, Google and Netflix, asking them to suspend services in Russia. He called on YouTube to block \u201cpropagandist\u201d Russian channels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sen. Mark R. Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called on Twitter and Facebook\u2019s parent, Meta, to \u201cassume a heightened posture\u201d against information operations linked to Russia. The Virginia Democrat warned that as the invasion advances, \u201cwe can expect to see an escalation in Russia\u2019s use of both overt and covert means to sow confusion about the conflict and promote disinformation narratives that weaken the global response to these illegal acts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And on Twitter, users called on their followers to report a YouTube channel with more than 22,000 followers that has been sharing videos that appeared to reveal the movements of Ukrainian troops. YouTube did not respond to a request for comment about the channel or video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tech companies long have positioned themselves as beacons of free expression and democratic standards. But the war in Ukraine is testing those values in new ways. From the halls of Congress to the Twitter feeds of pro-Ukrainian activists, the companies are facing increasing clamor for a tougher line on Russia, which itself is renowned for using popular technology to influence geopolitics \u2014 most infamously in the 2016 U.S. presidential election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere is a growing sense they have a moral obligation to ensure their sites are not exploited at a time of crisis,\u201d said Karen Kornbluh, director of the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund, a think tank. \u201cThe Russian playbook is clear \u2014 and the companies are under pressure not to wait to act against fake accounts or malign influence activity until after they are used to interfere with humanitarian assistance or inflame the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When President Biden announced sanctions<\/a> against Russia affecting high-tech imports on Thursday, he said they would \u201cimpair\u201d Russia\u2019s \u201cability to compete in a high-tech, 21st century economy.\u201d But the sanctions were largely focused on semiconductors and other high-tech tools that benefit Russia\u2019s defense sector. According to a Commerce Department statement, consumer communication devices are largely exempt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But policymakers, journalists, technologists and human rights advocates now are pressing for the tech companies to act more aggressively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Social media platforms particularly have come under scrutiny for their role in promoting Russian state media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a letter to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent Alphabet, which also owns YouTube, Warner accused the platforms of profiting from \u201cdisinformation.\u201d He wrote that his staff had discovered that YouTube was running ads on videos about the Ukrainian conflict from RT, Sputnik and Tass, all Russian state media organizations. He also wrote that Google\u2019s ad network was supporting Russian state media outlets by feeding ads to Sputnik and Tass. He said ads from \u201cunwitting\u201d brands like Best Buy, Allbirds and Progressive were being run by Google on those outlets\u2019 webpages. Those companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Others have called for RT and people affiliated with it to be banned from major social media sites, and they questioned why RT\u2019s editor in chief was permitted to spread falsehoods on Twitter. Twitter labels<\/a> the accounts of state-run media organizations and their senior staff members, and it does not allow state media to pay to promote tweets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s appropriate for American companies to pick sides in geopolitical conflicts, and this should be an easy call,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Alex Stamos, Facebook\u2019s former chief security officer and now director of the Stanford Internet Observatory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid the increased scrutiny, Twitter on Friday tweeted that it was \u201cactively monitoring\u201d for risks associated with Ukraine, and it temporarily paused advertisements in Russia and Ukraine to ensure that ads don\u2019t detract from key information about safety.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cameron Njaa, a spokesperson for Reddit, which also was singled out by Warner in his call for heightened awareness of Russian propaganda, said the company was \u201cextending resources\u201d to moderators in \u201caffected areas\u201d and working closely with governments and other platforms to \u201cstay on top of any malicious or inauthentic activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Late Friday, Meta announced that it would prohibit Russian state media from running ads or monetizing its platform anywhere in the world, and said it would continue applying fact-checking labels to posts from Russian state media. Earlier the same day, Nick Clegg, Meta\u2019s head of global affairs, tweeted<\/a> that Russian authorities had restricted the use of the company\u2019s services after Facebook had labeled and fact-checked posts from four state-owned media organizations. Clegg said the Russian authorities had ordered the company to stop the fact-checking and labeling but that it had refused.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Alphabet, TikTok and Telegram did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tech companies previously have bowed to pressure from Russia\u2019s Internet censor. In September, Apple and Google removed<\/a> an opposition voting app from their app stores as balloting began in the country\u2019s parliamentary election, after the Russian censorship agency accused the firms of interfering in the country\u2019s political affairs. The agency threatened fines and possible criminal prosecutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid mounting pressure on the platforms, Internet freedom advocates warned that tech platforms are a critical source of independent information for people in Russia, and limiting access to those platforms may leave people with only state propaganda that is inciting the war with Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMajor tech companies have a responsibility to their Ukrainian and Russian users to respect their rights to freedom of expression and access to information, especially in the time of war and political crisis,\u201d said Natalia Krapiva, the tech legal counsel of Access Now, a nonprofit that advocates for Internet freedom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But she said tech companies still need to take precautions to ensure that their platforms aren\u2019t abused.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey do, however, also have responsibility to keep their users safe and identify and respond to any campaigns of disinformation that may result in violence and abuse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n