Following the invasion of Ukrainian territory, a dozen technology giants have reduced their activity on Russian territory or taken measures against the propaganda of the Putin administration.
Tuesday 1er March, when it had already removed applications from several Russian media from its Store, Apple has ceased sales of electronic devices in Russia.
On Thursday, semiconductor giant Intel, whose processors power most computers, announced ceased deliveries to Russia and Belarus.
Friday, the Microsoft software specialist suspended all “new sales” in Russia. However, the company did not specify whether this suspension also concerned all of its products and subsidiaries – in particular Xbox consoles and video games.
On the same day, the Airbnb rental platform suspended all offers in Russia and Belarus.
Finally, Google has announcement Friday to have ceased to market advertisements in Russia on all of its products, like Meta, which had already withdrawn earlier in the week its advertising tools, which are no longer available in Russia or Belarus on the all of its platforms (Facebook, Instagram).
Measures against propaganda
Over the week, Meta also announced several measures to combat disinformation on its social networks, following in the footsteps of YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, which had already blocked Russian state media channels on the territory of the European Union.
At the request of European governments, Meta blocked the accounts of Russian state media RT and Sputnik in Europe (excluding the United Kingdom). Meta also claims to have limited the visibility of content published by certain pages linked to the Russian state, and taken measures against the dissemination of misleading or false messages.
On Wednesday March 2, the social network Twitter in turn suspended Russian state media accounts on European territory.
On the same day, Reddit, the main (mostly English-speaking) forum in the world blocked across its entire platform links pointing to Russian state media.
Spotify, the music and podcast streaming platform announced on Thursday close its offices in Russiaunpublished content sponsored by the Russian state and limited the visibility of podcasts offered by media linked to the Russian state.
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