Big Tech after Russia: Will tech giants stand up to other authoritarian regimes?
Meta, Twitter and Google have distanced themselves from Russia. What about all the other dictatorships?
By Greg Noone, March 31, 2022 - Almost as soon as grainy CCTV images emerged of Russian tanks crossing into Ukraine on 24 February, Big Tech companies began cracking down on Moscow’s behaviour on their platforms. Within days, both Google and Meta cut Russia’s state-run news channels – long viewed as conduits for misinformation – from ad revenue. They also took steps to protect their users in Ukraine: Apple and Google stopped providing live traffic data in their mapping apps, and Meta stepped up its efforts to purge misinformation networks on Facebook and Instagram.
This wasn’t enough for EU member states. By 28 February, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia called on Meta, Twitter and Google to suspend Russian state media channels outright on their platforms, while France’s minister for digital policy met with the chief executive of YouTube to discuss how to thwart the spread of ‘Russian propaganda’ throughout Europe. Later that day, after receiving ‘requests from a number of governments and the EU to take further steps,’ Meta’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg announced that the company would be restricting access to RT and Sputnik until further notice.
Questions also emerged about how long major technology platforms should stay in Russia itself. A day after the invasion, Ukraine’s vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on Apple and other technology giants to stop doing business with Russia. Within a week, Apple had done just that, with its decision to stop all product sales and restrict its services in the country quickly leading to bizarre scenes of commuters on the Moscow Metro, unable to use Apple Pay to clear the barriers, queuing for physical tickets instead. The company was joined by Google, Amazon, TikTok, Microsoft, Spotify, PayPal, Qualcomm and many others, all united by a collective desire to stop making money in an authoritarian regime that had just invaded its sovereign, democratic neighbour.
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