protocol Ukraine War: Effects on Tech

[UltraMega]

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Tech is playing a critical role in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Companies are extending relief to Ukrainian workers, platforms are blocking Russian ads and state-run media, and governments are taking aim at Russia with sanctions. Russia and Ukraine are using tech to their advantage, too: Ukraine has used its social media channels to call on the rest of the world for help, while Russia is pushing the platforms to remove unfavorable content and promote the Russian perspective to the world.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest ways platforms, governments and companies are responding to the war in Ukraine. We will update this page frequently as news and events change.

 

How are tech companies responding to the war in Ukraine?

Samsung said Friday that it has halted product shipments to Russia. A source familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the company would suspend exports of products such as chips, smartphones and consumer electronics to the country.

 

Cogent Communications, a U.S.-based internet service provider, is cutting off services to Russian clients. David Schaeffer, Cogent's CEO, told The Washington Post that the move is to not "empower the Russian government to have another tool in their war chest."

 

Microsoft suspended new sales of products and services in Russia. The company has not provided information about how this might financially impact their business, unlike other companies. Halting new sales will ostensibly create hardship for individuals and organizations using products like Azure, Office, and Xbox.

 

RT America, the Russian government-backed broadcaster, is ceasing operations and laying off most of its staff. The closure follows worldwide backlash against RT over its role in distributing Russian propaganda.

 

Spotify shut down its office in Russia indefinitely. The platform also took down all content from Russian state news agencies Sputnik and RT.

 

Mastercard and Visa blocked Russian banks from their networks. The payment giants announced that they are blocking multiple Russian financial institutions as a result of U.S. sanction orders. They have also pledged donations of $2 million each to aid in Ukrainian humanitarian relief.

 

Elon Musk activated SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine to limit the disruption of internet access. The terminals to access Starlink internet reportedly arrived in Ukraine Tuesday morning.

 

Airbnb will provide free housing to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. CEO Brian Chesky announced on Twitter that the company, which stepped up to help Afghan refugees last summer, is working with hosts to house refugees. The company also suspended operations in Russia and Belarus.

 

Some companies are severing ties with Russia. Apple is halting product sales in Russia and will take RT and Sputnik, two state-run news services, off its app stores outside of Russia. Apple Maps and Weather also now mark Crimea as part of Ukraine when users access it outside Russia. DuckDuckGo paused its relationship with Russian search engine Yandex. General Motors and Daimler Truck have also reportedly suspended some business in Russia.

 

• Entertainment and gaming companies are also halting their connections with Russia. 
• Netflix announced that it won’t add any Russian channels to its service, 
• Roku announced that it will remove RT from its channel store, and Disney will pause releasing films in Russia.
• CD Projekt Group, developer of The Witcher games, halted all sales of its products in Russia and Belarus.
   

Tech companies rushed to protect their Ukrainian workers. Grammarly was founded in Ukraine, and Google, Snap, Oracle and Ring all have significant Ukrainian workforces. The war has forced tech companies to quickly adopt plans to best support their employees at a terrifying time for Ukrainians.

 

• Wix, Lyft and Uber are helping Ukraine-based employees relocate.
• Grammarly is securing backup communication methods and will temporarily transfer business-critical responsibilities to team members outside of Ukraine.
• How are social media and digital platforms responding to the war in Ukraine?

 

Meta is offering encrypted Instagram DMs in Russia and Ukraine. Meta’s Nick Clegg announced the new features Tuesday, adding that Instagram will be notifying users that they can switch to encrypted chats. The company will also demote Facebook posts from users who link to Russian state media.

 

• Meta and other tech giants have been rolling out other safety features, too. Twitter's Safety team began sharing tips on how users can cover their digital tracks to help keep themselves safe. Meta launched a one-click tool for users to lock their Facebook accounts and opened a special operations center.
  
   

A few platforms restricted Russian ads and state-run news. Google stopped selling ads in Russia, becoming the biggest company to do so. Meta paused all ads targeting people in Russia, and will no longer run ads anywhere globally from Russian marketers. Meta restricted access to Russian state-run news outlets RT and Sputnik in the EU, and prohibited state-run media from running or monetizing ads on its platforms. Reddit banned links to state-supported Russian media outlets across its site, too. Twitter and Meta began adding prominent labels to articles shared from Russia-run news organizations.
 

• Messaging app Telegram banned Russian state-run media from its platform. The decision follows pressure from Europe to remove the channels.
   
• Alphabet prohibited RT and Sputnik from the Google Play Store. It also prevented state-run channels from making ad revenue on its platforms, and banned Russian media from buying ads through Google Tools and running ads on Google services.
   
• TikTok also joined the fray, confirming to the Washington Post on Monday that it would ban state-backed news organizations from accessing their accounts.
   
• Chinese social media platforms are also trying to stop fake news about Ukraine. Platforms like Douyin and Weibo have been scrambling to remove accounts spreading misinformation and making warmongering remarks and vulgar jokes, including some content that seems to have endangered Chinese nationals stranded in Ukraine.

How are governments responding to the war in Ukraine?

Ukraine & Russia:

When platforms restrict Russia, Russia restricts back. Roskomnadzor, Russia's communications regulator, restricted access to Facebook within the country on Friday. The agency announced last week that it would "partially restrict" the platform as an act of retaliation for fact-checking and labeling posts
 

• Russian news agency Interfax said Friday that state communications regulator Roskomnadzor has also started blocking access to Twitter. But Twitter denied this, saying “We're aware of reports, but we don't currently see anything significantly different from what we previously shared that would point to a block."
   

After initially saying no to crypto, Ukraine actually will take crypto donations. The Ukrainian government and a nonprofit supporting the country’s military have received over $22 million worth of digital assets since allowing crypto donations last weekend.
 

Ukraine wants to kick Russia offline. The country wants ICANN to cut Russia off from the global computer network. ICANN rejected its request Wednesday.
 

Russia won't sell rocket engines to the United States anymore. The move would mostly affect the United Launch Alliance, a launch provider for NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, and Northrop Grumman, which sends cargo to the International Space Station.
 

Ukraine is embroiled in a meme war with Russia. Ukraine has posted a lot of memes and sarcastic lines about Russia on its Twitter account recently, but that’s nothing new. Experts think it’s a soft power tool the country is using to assert its sovereignty from Russia to the rest of the world.

 

The rest of the world:
 

What you need to know about SWIFT. EU leaders want to work with the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and Italy to remove some Russian banks from SWIFT and freeze Russia’s central bank assets. The main idea behind the ban is to stop Russia from operating its finances globally.
 

The world’s biggest container lines stopped cargo shipments to and from Russia, including MSC, Denmark's Maersk and France’s CMA CGM.
 

The war in Ukraine could cause major chip issues. The White House wants to cut off Russia’s access to chips, which could have a ripple effect on the rest of the world. But another big chip shortage is top of mind.
 

The cyber risks are also real. The war has raised the possibility that a major cyberattack could affect U.S. and European systems, even though the fighting so far hasn’t spilled far outside of Ukraine’s borders. Both the Kremlin and cybercriminals allied with Russia will likely step up their attacks as the war continues.
 

NASA and Russia’s space station partnership is at risk. The International Space Station has long been a sign of collaboration among countries, Russia included. But those relationships have gotten strained as of late, especially amid sanctions that would “degrade” Russia’s space program.

How are governments responding to the war in Ukraine? - Protocol

WWW.PROTOCOL.COM

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Arming decision-makers in tech, business and public policy with the unbiased, fact-based news and analysis they need to navigate a world in rapid change.

 

 

Though this kind of topic may be in the grey area of what we normally discuss here, I feel this topic is too big to ignore. As a site that hosts people of different democracies, I know everyone here supports the strong independent soul of Ukraine and it's people. Whatever happens, it's safe to say Ukraine has earned and honorable spot in the history books. 

This thread should serve as a place to discuss the impact of the current situation on tech related topics and current events related to the ongoing situation as it relates to topics normally discussed here. It's a tricky topic, but one that is hard to ignore in any context. 

 

[schuck6566]

I think it's safe to say that any military action by a Govt. nowadays has to take Social Media into account.If they're not,then it's likely the Govt.will fail because of intel leaks,at the least. Just look at what people posting videos has done to police reform and you can imagine trying to move troops under the radar. "I need the town surrounded before the Govt. forces know..." then the Govt. sees "Woke up to walk the dog,saw all these transports driving past the house,wonder where they were going?" So much for the secret invasion.

[Diffident]

The one thing that hasn't stopped, the importing of Oil and Natural Gas from Russia by the US and Europe.  That's what funds the war.  It could stop if Germany ends the process of shutting down it's last 3 nuclear power plants to end it's dependence on Russian natural gas for electricity production, and if the US reverses it's decision to place a moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling leases.  In 2019 the US became a net exporter of energy for the first time since 1949, now our oil imports from Russia are at it's highest point in 20 years.    The US could provide Europe with it's needed oil and natural gas and end it's dependence on Russia.

 

We are on the verge of Battlefield 2042 becoming a reality...just 20 years earlier.

[Sir Beregond]

2 hours ago, Diffident said:

The one thing that hasn't stopped, the importing of Oil and Natural Gas from Russia by the US and Europe.  That's what funds the war.  It could stop if Germany ends the process of shutting down it's last 3 nuclear power plants to end it's dependence on Russian natural gas for electricity production, and if the US reverses it's decision to place a moratorium on oil and natural gas drilling leases.  In 2019 the US became a net exporter of energy for the first time since 1949, now our oil imports from Russia are at it's highest point in 20 years.    The US could provide Europe with it's needed oil and natural gas and end it's dependence on Russia.

 

We are on the verge of Battlefield 2042 becoming a reality...just 20 years earlier.

I filled up my gas tank yesterday. It was $4.10 a gallon. The last time I saw 87 above $4 was probably 2008ish.

[Avacado]

27 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

I filled up my gas tank yesterday. It was $4.10 a gallon. The last time I saw 87 above $4 was probably 2008ish.

Yea... Seems like price gouging if you ask me. Though its not like what was released will have any impact on prices. I will definitely be buying electric next time I need a vehicle. 

 

Fact-checking the Strategic Petroleum Oil release

WWW.WUSA9.COM

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The Biden Administration says it will pitch in half of the 60 million barrels of crude oil that the International Energy Agency plans to release.

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Avacado

[Diffident]

6 hours ago, Avacado said:

Yea... Seems like price gouging if you ask me. Though its not like what was released will have any impact on prices. I will definitely be buying electric next time I need a vehicle. 

 

Fact-checking the Strategic Petroleum Oil release

WWW.WUSA9.COM

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The Biden Administration says it will pitch in half of the 60 million barrels of crude oil that the International Energy Agency plans to release.

 

Not really price gouging when the market price for oil is $115 a barrel.  Throughout 2019 oil hovered between $50 to $60.

 

Releasing oil reserves is just "doing something" so you can say you're "doing something".  Drilling actually does something, but the US chooses to  artificially reduce the worlds supply of oil and natural gas which fuels the current situation.....Massive inflation and Russia's war.  The administration calls it "transitioning away from fossil fuels" which is fine and dandy if every car lot was filled with new and used electric vehicles...but they're not.  With the chip shortage, the lots aren't filled with gas vehicles either.

 

We shouldn't be buying Putin's oil.  Putin doesn't plan on stopping after Ukraine.  His goal is to unify the former Soviet states into Russia. Crimea was first to be invaded in 2014.  He's also made the same speech about the Baltic States that he made about Ukraine.  The Baltic States are members of NATO, so either NATO sits back and watches more countries get invaded or it's the beginning of WW3.   We won't have to worry about scalpers buying up all the GPU's anymore.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Diffident

[pio]

My opinion?  Both sides are wrong in this.  War is bad.  But its equally bad purposely provoking a world power too.  What do you think is going to happen if you keep poking a sleeping bear?  I think each country needs to keep to themselves, including our own countries respectively.  If you can't play nicely, don't play.  Russia meant business when they said they didn't want NATO so close to them.  That needs to be respected.  Ukraine means business when they say they don't want to be a part of Russia.  Fine.  I'm sure we could've reached a safe middle ground there had things gone differently.

 

Obviously political here, but yeah our own country (the US) is in absolutely NO PLACE to be dictating what another country is doing.  That goes with our tech sectors too.  We rely too heavily on other countries in current times to have any say in what they do.  We shouldn't be telling other countries what to do anyway.  I don't get why we can't just all get along like we were just 2 years ago. -_- 

[Sir Beregond]

35 minutes ago, Diffident said:

Not really price gouging when the market price for oil is $115 a barrel.  Throughout 2019 oil hovered between $50 to $60.

 

Releasing oil reserves is just "doing something" so you can say you're "doing something".  Drilling actually does something, but the US chooses to  artificially reduce the worlds supply of oil and natural gas which fuels the current situation.....Massive inflation and Russia's war.  The administration calls it "transitioning away from fossil fuels" which is fine and dandy if every car lot was filled with new and used electric vehicles...but they're not.  With the chip shortage, the lots aren't filled with gas vehicles either.

 

We shouldn't be buying Putin's oil.  Putin doesn't plan on stopping after Ukraine.  His goal is to unify the former Soviet states into Russia. Crimea was first to be invaded in 2014.  He's also made the same speech about the Baltic States that he made about Ukraine.  The Baltic States are members of NATO, so either NATO sits back and watches more countries get invaded or it's the beginning of WW3.   We won't have to worry about scalpers buying up all the GPU's anymore.

Well said.

[Diffident]

12 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

My opinion?  Both sides are wrong in this.  War is bad.  But its equally bad purposely provoking a world power too.  What do you think is going to happen if you keep poking a sleeping bear?  I think each country needs to keep to themselves, including our own countries respectively.  If you can't play nicely, don't play.  Russia meant business when they said they didn't want NATO so close to them.  That needs to be respected.  Ukraine means business when they say they don't want to be a part of Russia.  Fine.  I'm sure we could've reached a safe middle ground there had things gone differently.

 

Obviously political here, but yeah our own country (the US) is in absolutely NO PLACE to be dictating what another country is doing.  That goes with our tech sectors too.  We rely too heavily on other countries in current times to have any say in what they do.  We shouldn't be telling other countries what to do anyway.  I don't get why we can't just all get along like we were just 2 years ago. -_- 

Well actually the US and the UK aren't holding up their end of the Budapest agreement.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had the worlds third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.  In 1994 Ukraine agreed to give up their nukes for security assurances that aren't being provided.

 

Also Ukraine is a sovereign country, they should be able to join whatever organization they wish.  They have been trying to join NATO since the 1990's but they've had leaders at varies times, aligned with Russia, that were against it, so it's been a long process.

[schuck6566]

13 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

My opinion?  Both sides are wrong in this.  War is bad.  But its equally bad purposely provoking a world power too.  What do you think is going to happen if you keep poking a sleeping bear?  I think each country needs to keep to themselves, including our own countries respectively.  If you can't play nicely, don't play.  Russia meant business when they said they didn't want NATO so close to them.  That needs to be respected.  Ukraine means business when they say they don't want to be a part of Russia.  Fine.  I'm sure we could've reached a safe middle ground there had things gone differently.

 

Obviously political here, but yeah our own country (the US) is in absolutely NO PLACE to be dictating what another country is doing.  That goes with our tech sectors too.  We rely too heavily on other countries in current times to have any say in what they do.  We shouldn't be telling other countries what to do anyway.  I don't get why we can't just all get along like we were just 2 years ago. -_- 

I'm sorry, but that type of stance with a person with a mindset like Putin will just let him continue to rebuild his empire to it's former glory(in his mind) see the image for the reality of HIS world....

What's he going to do about the NATO member nations that will be on his new border when he takes the Ukraine? Of course He'll have to take THEM to "secure" his border again.

Edited March 6, 2022 by schuck6566

[UltraMega]

18 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

My opinion?  Both sides are wrong in this.  War is bad.  But its equally bad purposely provoking a world power too.  What do you think is going to happen if you keep poking a sleeping bear?  I think each country needs to keep to themselves, including our own countries respectively.  If you can't play nicely, don't play.  Russia meant business when they said they didn't want NATO so close to them.  That needs to be respected.  Ukraine means business when they say they don't want to be a part of Russia.  Fine.  I'm sure we could've reached a safe middle ground there had things gone differently.

 

Obviously political here, but yeah our own country (the US) is in absolutely NO PLACE to be dictating what another country is doing.  That goes with our tech sectors too.  We rely too heavily on other countries in current times to have any say in what they do.  We shouldn't be telling other countries what to do anyway.  I don't get why we can't just all get along like we were just 2 years ago. -_- 

Ukraine was years away from being able to join NATO. Putin setup false flag ops to try to justify the war to his own people. 

 

IMO Putin likes to paint NATO as more than a defensive pact to justify his imperialism, but unless hes completely nuts I'm sure he knows NATO would never start a conflict with anyone. NATO is just a scapegoat. 

 

 

Anyway, its interesting to me that so many companies are reacting to this. 

Edited March 6, 2022 by UltraMega

[ENTERPRISE]

Anything "Russian" now is virtually blacklisted. I read a company was going to stop software optimization related to Russian CPU,s, Nintendo has suspended services, UK supermarkets have removed Russian Vodka from the shelves. Russian is a dirty thing right now. 

 

I feel for the Russian people getting dragged along and suffering due to Putins actions and obviously for all of Ukraine. Whole thing is a very unfunny joke. 

 

 

 

 

[Avacado]

Well this invasion hits hard. My wife got me a 23 and me DNA test for this past Christmas and I found out quite a few relatives are from Poland and Ukraine. This invasion just hits harder now.

 

[schuck6566]

Annnnd China shows more support.....

Russian banks may issue cards with China's UnionPay as Visa, Mastercard cut links

WWW.REUTERS.COM

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Credit cards issued by Russian banks using the Visa and Mastercard payment systems will stop functioning overseas after March 9...

 

[ArchStanton]

19 minutes ago, schuck6566 said:

Annnnd China shows more support.....

I've been wondering (still am) if Putin got "pre-approval" with China before starting this ball rolling. 

[Avacado]

6 minutes ago, ArchStanton said:

I've been wondering (still am) if Putin got "pre-approval" with China before starting this ball rolling. 

100%. Notice how the invasion did not occur until AFTER the closing ceremonies at the Olympics, even though troops had been amassing on the border for weeks. 

[Sir Beregond]

17 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Anything "Russian" now is virtually blacklisted. I read a company was going to stop software optimization related to Russian CPU,s, Nintendo has suspended services, UK supermarkets have removed Russian Vodka from the shelves. Russian is a dirty thing right now. 

 

I feel for the Russian people getting dragged along and suffering due to Putins actions and obviously for all of Ukraine. Whole thing is a very unfunny joke. 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowing a few people myself who are Russian (not from Russia though), I just hope the regular people living in and about areas like the US, UK, etc. are not facing issues due to what Putin is doing. I do feel for the Russian people in that regard. Like they are kinda laying low and are not at all a fan of what's happening.

 

17 hours ago, Avacado said:

Well this invasion hits hard. My wife got me a 23 and me DNA test for this past Christmas and I found out quite a few relatives are from Poland and Ukraine. This invasion just hits harder now.

 

So as an aside, how was that process? I was thinking about doing one of these so I can figure out what all I am instead of just the half Spanish half Welsh I tell everyone when the topic comes up (based on Mom and Dad's sides).  

Edited March 7, 2022 by Sir Beregond

[Avacado]

35 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

 

Knowing a few people myself who are Russian (not from Russia though), I just hope the regular people living in and about areas like the US, UK, etc. are not facing issues due to what Putin is doing. I do feel for the Russian people in that regard. Like they are kinda laying low and are not at all a fan of what's happening.

 

So as an aside, how was that process? I was thinking about doing one of these so I can figure out what all I am instead of just the half Spanish half Welsh I tell everyone when the topic comes up (based on Mom and Dad's sides).  

Quite easy actually. They mail you a kit, you spit in a tube a few times and mail it out. Results in 2 months or so. 

[Diffident]

10 hours ago, ArchStanton said:

I've been wondering (still am) if Putin got "pre-approval" with China before starting this ball rolling. 

 

China is hoping Russia shows support when China invades Taiwan later this year or next year.  China has been flying into Taiwan airspace on a regular basis. They flew 9 fighter jets into Taiwan airspace the same day Russia invaded Ukraine.  After what happened in Afghanistan earlier this year and how the world is sitting around watching Ukraine be invaded, the invasion of Taiwan is more likely by the day.

 

If China takes Taiwan, imagine the IP that can be stolen once TSMC is under government control.

[Sir Beregond]

17 minutes ago, Diffident said:

 

China is hoping Russia shows support when China invades Taiwan later this year or next year.  China has been flying into Taiwan airspace on a regular basis. They flew 9 fighter jets into Taiwan airspace the same day Russia invaded Ukraine.  After what happened in Afghanistan earlier this year and how the world is sitting around watching Ukraine be invaded, the invasion of Taiwan is more likely by the day.

 

If China takes Taiwan, imagine the IP that can be stolen once TSMC is under government control.

This possibility has been weighing on me a lot lately. China is after the rare earth elements in Afghanistan now that we are gone, and next is Taiwan.

[Diffident]

Bundle for Ukraine by Necrosoft Games and 732 others

ITCH.IO

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Bundle for Ukraine: 991 items for $10.00

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The people of Ukraine are under attack. As game developers we want to create new worlds, not to destroy the one we have. That's why we've banded together to present this charity bundle to help Ukrainians survive this ordeal and thrive after the war ends. This cause has resonated with creators around the globe, to the extent that our bundle contains almost 1,000 games, tabletop RPGs, books, etc.

 

[Supercrumpet]

16 hours ago, Diffident said:

Bundle for Ukraine by Necrosoft Games and 732 others

ITCH.IO

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Bundle for Ukraine: 991 items for $10.00

 

 

Thanks for sharing! That's a hilarious amount of stuff included.

[Storm-Chaser]

It's all about the change of the balance of power in this world people...

[Storm-Chaser]

On 07/03/2022 at 10:27, Avacado said:

100%. Notice how the invasion did not occur until AFTER the closing ceremonies at the Olympics, even though troops had been amassing on the border for weeks. 

The reason there was no motive given for a justification of war is that the EU needs to keep it under wraps that they wanted Ukraine as well. 

[Sir Beregond]

Ukraine is game to you?!