Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put U.S. social media companies under heightened scrutiny as the Kremlin threatens to restrict what its citizens can access online. At the same time, Ukrainian and Western governments demand Facebook, Twitter, and others do more to suppress pro-Russian content.
As much of the world used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to follow developments this week in Ukraine, U.S. tech companies struggled to balance maintaining the free flow of information globally and battling dangerous misinformation on their platforms.
Moscow pressured both its domestic media and U.S. tech platforms to clamp down on information in conflict with Russia’s domestic disinformation campaign, threatening to block content that it called “false information” about its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia placed a total or near-total block on Twitter inside the country late last week, according to internet connectivity watcher NetBlocks. Russian users with virtual private networks, a service that creates an encrypted tunnel for data and hides the user’s IP address, can circumvent the restriction. Still, some members of the media reported having trouble tweeting from within Russia.
Russia’s communications regulator announced it would “partially restrict” citizens’ access to Facebook in retaliation for what it called the platform’s violation of “the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens” with its “censorship,” referring to the company flagging and fact-checking certain Russian content. Facebook regularly fact-checks and labels content in the other countries where it operates.
Ukraine’s government used its Twitter account to pressure that platform to take action against Russia: “Hey people, let’s demand @Twitter to remove @Russia from here … they should not be allowed to use these platforms to promote their image while brutally killing the Ukrainian people @TwitterSupport.”
Since the request, Twitter has suspended all advertising in Ukraine and Russia in an effort “to ensure critical public safety information is elevated, and ads don’t detract from it.” It also announced Monday that it would begin labeling content from Russian state-affiliated media websites shared on individuals’ accounts. A Twitter spokesperson said that, since the invasion, there have been an average of 45,000 such tweets every day and that they make up the majority of how state-affiliated media is shared.
Other firms took similar steps.
The head of security policy at Facebook, Nathaniel Gleicher, tweeted last week that the company was “now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platforms anywhere in the world.”
Google-owned YouTube also demonetized several Russian state media channels. A YouTube spokesman said the company is limiting recommendations of those channels and, at the request of the Ukrainian government, is blocking them entirely in Ukraine.
Apple announced Tuesday a halt to sales of iPhones and other products inside Russia. The company also blocked downloads of Russian state-sponsored news outlets through its App Store outside Russia.
All of this comes on the heels of Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling social media firms that they had “a clear responsibility to ensure that your products are not used to facilitate human rights abuses.” He sent his letter urging efforts to help stop Russian influence online to Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok, and Twitter.
U.S. social media companies face similar conflicting pressures domestically, with many Democrats wanting platforms to do more to combat misinformation online and Republicans who complain that the platforms flag and take down too much conservative content because of political bias.
But the stakes are higher for these companies during the Ukraine crisis with the eyes of the world on their content moderation policies. The situation has thrown into sharp contrast the trade-offs between an unfettered flow of information, such as providing alternatives to state-sponsored sources, and guarding against contributing to propaganda, human rights violations, and other dangers.
Because the burden of balancing free speech, safety, and shareholder accountability falls mainly on social media firms, other tech companies outside of that space have fewer competing priorities surrounding the conflict. Microsoft issued a statement calling the violence a “tragic, unlawful and unjustified invasion” and outlining its four-pronged corporate reaction, involving “protecting Ukraine from cyberattacks; protection from state-sponsored disinformation campaigns; support for humanitarian assistance; and the protection of our employees.”
Farther up the tech stack, Elon Musk’s SpaceX had a less fraught response and scored a major public relations victory over the weekend. Ukraine’s minister for technological transformation asked via Twitter that SpaceX deploy its Starlink Stations, which provide high-speed broadband access through satellites in low-Earth orbit, to circumvent Moscow’s digital blockade. Later the same day, Musk tweeted in response: “Starlink service now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.”
