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How influencers are protesting against the war in Ukraine.

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How influencers are protesting against the war in Ukraine.

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ocial media influencers are often maligned for their vapidity, but as the Russian army moves across Ukraine some of Russia's biggest digital influencers have become beacons of resistance. Many are speaking out about their unease at the speed and brutality with which the Russian president is leading his country to war. Ukrainian influencers, meanwhile, are also braving the risks of attack from the advancing army to make sure to document the horror of war in mainland Europe.

Some of Russia's biggest names in the digital sphere have spoken out against war. The daughter of Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press secretary, posted a message reading "No to war" on her Instagram story, before quickly deleting it. Max Galkin, the husband of Alla Pugacheva, and one of Russia's biggest stars, posted a black square on Instagram and the message "Нет войне!" ("no to war!") to his 9.4m followers. Fashion designer Svetlana Taccori took time out of Milan fashion week to post a photo holding a Ukrainian flag and the same message. Influencer Lova Olala painted the Russian and Ukrainian flag on each cheek and the caption "I have nothing to say". The independent Russian journalist Ilya Varlamov has posted regular photos and videos highlighting Russian brutality, calling for a cessation of violence in Ukraine.

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Niki Proshin, a 27-year-old Russian TikToker with 750,000 followers, started posting about the invasion of Ukraine as soon as Russian troops crossed the border. He posted a single video to TikTok addressing the many questions he received from his followers asking for his thoughts on Ukraine. He spoke out about the war, and about his anger that Vladimir Putin launched the attack at night. "Showing my opinion publicly helps foreigners understand Russian people more and helps to keep the bridge between normal people outside of Russia, and normal people in Russia," says Proshin. He followed it up with another video, taken live at street protests in his home city of St Petersburg.

Yet many of his friends spoke out, choosing to post images of black squares on Instagram or videos speaking out against the invasion. "The current situation touched us much more than the events of the last year," he said.

Xenia Tchoumitcheva, born in the Russian mountain city of Magnitogorsk, chose a black and white picture of an espresso as the backdrop for her pronouncement on the invasion. "In my veins run both Russian and Ukrainian blood," she wrote. "I don't have any political knowledge nor opinion, but all I can say is: I am always against war and for the people," she wrote to her 2 million followers.

The risk for Russian influencers, celebrities and journalists in speaking out against the Russian dictator is obvious - those who don't toe the government line can find themselves arrested or worse, as those being arrested for protesting on the streets in Russia know well. But considering their reach, a well-timed statement to millions on Instagram or TikTok can inflict considerable reputational damage to Putin's claims of unity behind his cause.

"This is something pretty common that comes from both Ukrainian and Russian influencers," says Roman Kolodko, chief operating officer of eastern European influencer marketing agency Mediacube, which represents a number of Russian and Ukrainian creators. Kolodko spoke as he fled Ukraine for Poland. "Many big influencers are in Ukrainian cities that have been and are being attacked right now, and they need to spread their word," he added - and those who aren't have family there.

Ukrainian influencers who remain in the country have adapted their content to match the changed circumstances of their new lives under the shadow of invasion. Until yesterday, Anna Prytula's Instagram feed looked like any other relatively large influencer's: impossibly perfect cakes, overflowing bouquets of flowers and oodles of boxes and bags from Louis Vuitton lined the frame of her feed. Her lifestyle was lapped up by her million followers, 71% of whom are Ukrainian, and 16% of whom are Russian.

Then Russian boots trampled over Ukraine, and alarmingly close to Prytula's home city of Lviv. Suddenly Prytula's posts changed. Gone were the impossibly glam photos outside luxury hotels; in their place, a stark red square with white text: "at 5am Russia is attacking the territory of Ukraine". Her Instagram stories changed soon afterwards from glimpses into her glamorous life to footage of missiles raining down over her homeland, pleas to Nato to intervene, and advice on how to find help and where to hide.

As reality intrudes into the western order's way of thinking about Russia's attitude to risk, so too has the hyperreal, polished world of social media has been hit with a reality check. Ukrainian travel blogger Elena Mandziuk showed her million followers how to make molotov cocktails on her Instagram stories. Mary Furtas, a Ukrainian entrepreneur with nearly 55,000 followers, pivoted her profile to post overtly political pleas on 19 February. On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, like Prytula, she posted a similar red square. The text, however, was different: "Every Russian is responsible for this," she wrote.

It hasn't escaped TikTok users' notice that the app's For You feed has been filled with videos about events in Ukraine. Most people who study it believe the TikTok algorithm rewards people who are speaking about current events. Some of those are legitimate, informative videos - Ukrainian-British TikToker Marta Vasyuta has shared with the world the destructive aftermath of Russian attacks from around the country, acting as a one-woman content curation desk fuelled by righteous anger - but others are chasing likes. The app has struggled with misrepresentative or outright faked live streams and videos that are designed either to confuse or to capitalise on interest in Ukraine.

But those who are authentic will continue posting content - and for good reason. Proshin, the Russian TikToker who felt he had to speak out, says his posts aren't political, but instead connect at a human level with the rest of the world. "I hope we'll make people understand that 'Russian people' is not equal to the Russian government," he says. "Some Russian people support the political decisions of our government, but from my personal perspective, they're a minority. In this situation, 'Russia' equals 'people who can make decisions'. The majority of my friends have no power to make decisions."

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The first TikTok war: how are influencers in Russia and Ukraine responding?

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ocial media influencers are often maligned for their vapidity, but as the Russian army moves across Ukraine some of Russia's biggest digital influencers have become beacons of resistance. Many are speaking out about their unease at the speed and brutality with which the Russian president is leading his country to war.

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Kristina Korban, an influencer from Ukraine, has a large platform on TikTok, with over half a million followers. A model/singer, she started using her popularity to speak on the attacks, dangers, and repercussions of the war on her home country. She has also started selling merchandise to recruit funds for refugees looking to escape. (Monika De Leon)

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Kristina Korban, a woman living in Ukraine, posts videos about the invasion on TikTok.

She told Insider that she has been accused of being a "scammer" by some people.

"They're expecting that if I'm not on the front lines, then I'm not in Ukraine," Korban said.

Kristina Korban, a TikToker living in Ukraine, told Insider that she's been accused of faking her videos about Russia's invasion.

The 32-year-old from Kyiv, Ukraine, previously used her social-media platform to post videos about finance and investment. Now, she shares videos about her daily life since the invasion with her 630,000 followers on TikTok.

So far, she has posted videos about what it's like to go grocery shopping in Kyiv, what "war meals" with her family look like, as well as updates about her 2-year-old daughter and her family, who decided to stay in Ukraine.

She's also using her platform to encourage others to donate to the people of Ukraine. In one video posted on March 2, she said that she was selling merch, including T-shirts and hoodies. She said the proceeds of the sales will go to families in Ukraine who need help with food, supplies, transportation, and shelter.

Korban told Insider that her TikTok comment section is mixed. She said that while she has received positive support from followers, there are others who think her content is fake because she's not "with a gun in the front lines."

"It doesn't happen that much anymore, but some people think I'm a scammer and that I'm not in Ukraine," she said.

"Some people would be like, 'Oh this is fake. There's no war or, you're just taking footage from COVID,' or this and that. And they're expecting that if I'm not in the front lines, then I'm not in Ukraine. And that to me is already such a misinformed mindset. It's a very unrealistic mindset that some people have," she said.

TikTok has been accused of allowing some users to publish misinformation about the war since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February. As Insider previously reported, some videos claiming to be footage of Russia's invasion were later found to be taken from video games and other conflicts.

"We continue to closely monitor the situation, with increased resources to respond to emerging trends and remove violative content, including harmful misinformation and promotion of violence," a TikTok spokesperson previously told Insider. "We also partner with independent fact-checking organizations to further aid our efforts to help TikTok remain a safe and authentic place."

Korban has started a donation campaign for the people of Ukraine on Chuffed, a non-profit fundraising website. At the time of writing, over $30,000 has been raised for families who have lost their sons in battle, those without pay, and for the elderly, according to the website. To donate, visit the fundraising page.

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A Ukrainian TikToker says she has been accused of faking her content because she's not 'with a gun on the front lines'

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Kristina Korban, a woman living in Ukraine, posts videos about the invasion on TikTok. She told Insider that she has been accused of being a "scammer" by some people. "They're expecting that if I'm not on the front lines, then I'm not in Ukraine," Korban said.

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People in certain subjects of influence like fitness which is a popular one, can get the word across through their platform. This dude shows how life is under Vladimir Putin. He is very young so it shows what they youth can do.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-tiktok-dzvnks-life-invasion-b2028399.html

-Angle Cortez

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Russian Censorship Regarding Ukraine (Samantha Ochoa)

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Russian Censorship Regarding Ukraine (Samantha Ochoa)

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Russia has blocked many social medias including Facebook, Instagram, and heavily restricted Twitter. But some Russians are using private networks to bypass restrictions. As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, Moscow has looked to tighten control over its domestic internet, cutting off apps made by U.S. technology giants, even while other firms have pulled their own services from the country.

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As Russia's war on Ukraine continues, Moscow has looked to tighten control over its domestic internet, cutting off apps made by U.S. technology giants, even while other firms have pulled their own services from the country.

But a move to emulate the internet as it exists in China - perhaps the most restricted online environment anywhere - is a long way off, and Russian citizens are still manage to bypass controls in the system, analysts told CNBC.

Over the last few years, companies like Facebook owner Meta, Google and Twitter have operated in an uneasy environment in Russia.

They have faced pressure from the government to remove content the Kremlin deems unfavorable. The Washington Post reported this month that Russian agents threatened to jail a Google executive unless the company removed an app that had drawn the ire of the President Vladimir Putin. And companies have lived under threat of their services being throttled.

While Russia's internet became progressively more controlled, citizens could still access those global services, making them gateways to information other than state-backed media or pro-Kremlin sources.

But the war with Ukraine has thrust American technology giants into the cross-hairs once more, as Putin's desire to further control information increases.

Instagram is now blocked in Russia after its parent company Meta allowed users in some countries to call for violence against Russia's president and military in the context of the Ukraine invasion. Facebook was blocked in Russia last week after it put restrictions on government-backed news outlets. Access to Twitter is heavily restricted.

Those incidents highlight how Big Tech companies have to balance their pursuit of a large market like Russia with increasing demands for censorship.

"For Western tech companies, they made a strategic decision at the beginning of the conflict to support Ukraine. This puts them on a collision course with the Russian government," Abishur Prakash, co-founder of the Center for Innovating the Future, told CNBC. He added that companies like Meta are "picking politics over profits."

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its media and internet watchdog Roskomnadzor did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Russia's tightening online grip has revived talk about a "splinternet" - the idea that two or more divergent internets will operate in increasingly separate online worlds.

Nowhere is that separation clearer than in China, where services from Google, Meta, Twitter and foreign news organizations are blocked.

Instead of WhatsApp, Chinese citizens use WeChat, the popular messaging app with over 1 billion users, for example. Google search is replaced by Baidu. Weibo replaces Twitter.

The country's massive censorship system, known as the Great Firewall, has developed over two decades and is continually being refined.

Even virtual private networks, services that can mask users' locations and identities in order to help them jump the firewall, are hard to get for regular Chinese citizens.

While Russia's increasing internet controls will likely accelerate this push toward divergent internets, the country is far off from creating anything near the technical capability behind China's restrictions.

"It's taken years for the Chinese authorities to get where they are today. And their strategy has evolved and adapted during this time. Russia cannot do this overnight," said Charlie Smith, founder of GreatFire.org, an organization that monitors censorship in China.

Paul Triolo, senior vice president for China and technology policy lead at strategic advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group, said that China's system allows "internet censors and internet controllers much more granular leeway to monitoring traffic, turn off geographical areas, including down to the block level in cities, and be very precise in their targeting of offending traffic or users."

That is something Russia cannot replicate, he added.

It is difficult for Chinese citizens to get around Beijing's tight internet controls. The government has regularly clamped down on VPN apps, which are the best option for evading the Great Firewall.

But Russians have been able to evade the Kremlin's attempts to censor the internet. VPNs have seen a surge in downloads from Russia.

Meanwhile, Twitter has launched a version of its website on Tor, a service that encrypts internet traffic to help mask the identity of users and prevent surveillance on them.

"Putin appears to have misjudged both the level of technical savvy of his citizens and their willingness to seek workarounds to continue to access non-official information, and the many new tools and services, plus workarounds and channels that have sprung up over the past five years that enable people who really want to maintain access to outside information channels to do so," Albright Stonebridge Group's Triolo said.

As U.S. and European firms suspend business in Russia, Chinese technology companies could look to take advantage of that. Many of them, from Alibaba to smartphone maker Realme, already have business there.

So far, Chinese companies have remained silent on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Beijing has refused to call Russia's war on Ukraine an "invasion" and has not joined the United States, European Union, Japan and others' sanctions against Moscow.

It's therefore a tricky path for Chinese corporates.

"So far there does not seem to be any guidance coming from central authorities in China on how companies should deal with the sanctions or export controls, so companies with a large footprint outside China are likely to be reluctant to buck restrictions," Triolo said.

"They will be very careful in determining both Beijing's wishes here, weighing how to handle demands from Russia customers old and new, and gauging the risks to their broader operations of continuing to cooperate with sanctioned end user organizations."

The Chinese are likely to make their moves depending on the tone from Beijing, according to Prakash.

"If Beijing continues to tacitly support Moscow, then Chinese tech firms have several opportunities. The biggest opportunity is for these companies to fill the gap that Western companies created when they exited Russia," he said. "The ability of these companies to grow their footprint and revenue in Russia is massive."

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Russia may aspire to a China-style internet, but it's a long way off

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As Russia's war on Ukraine continues, Moscow has looked to tighten control over its domestic internet, cutting off apps made by U.S. technology giants, even while other firms have pulled their own services from the country.

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American express cannot be used is banned in russia (Manuel Cruz)

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American express cannot be used is banned in russia (Manuel Cruz)

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american express suspends operations in russia and belarus - cnn

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American Express suspends operations in Russia and Belarus

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American Express is the latest credit card company to announce it is ending its operations in Russia as its invasion into Ukraine escalates.

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Private companies boycotts of Russia - Netflix 

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Private companies boycotts of Russia - Netflix 

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Netflix announced on tuesday March 6th that they will be pausing all projects and acquisitions from Russia. They also have said to CNN “Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service,”

Mordecai Frisby

https://thehill.com/policy/international/596350-here-are-the-private-companies-that-have-made-moves-against-russia

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How Youtubers are avoiding Censorship while Protesting 

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How Youtubers are avoiding Censorship while Protesting 

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(Bryan Flores-Caballero)
The people of Russia are at risk if they even dare speak on the situation in Ukraine or anything mentioning a war. So much so that they may face jail time for it. To combat this issue, Youtubers and other influencers are using different code words and phrases to still speak on or protest against the war, without directly mentioning it.

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The Russian government has blocked Facebook, Twitter and TikTok and passed a new media law that imposed a prison term of up to 15 years for intentionally spreading "fake news" about the country's military. Our team spoke to Maya Volf, who works as a producer for Russian opposition YouTuber Ilya Varlamov about how they are working to get their messages out despite this censorship.

Maya Volf works as a producer for Russian YouTuber Ilya Varlamov who speaks openly about the war in Ukraine on his YouTube channel dedicated to analysing Russian politics. Volf is currently in Amsterdam, but she says part of her team is still in Russia. For security reasons, she couldn't tell us where Ilya Varlamov is located.

Maya Volf spoke to the FRANCE 24 Observers:

On Twitter, a lot of people post things like "Russians, you can stop this war". But no! Russians can't. Even just getting information and sharing it with others is really dangerous for us and our families. For example, my husband is in Turkey right now because I am afraid for him.

TikTok, Twitter and Facebook have all been shut down in Russia. So how are those Russians opposed to the war supposed to get information? For now, we still have Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp. YouTube is still working as well, but we think that both YouTube and Instagram are going to be shut down shortly, too. Soon, there will only be Telegram left.

We've built a 'new dictionary' to get around censorship

New laws in Russia mean that we can't write what we want. We can no longer talk about the war, except for sharing information provided by the Russian ministry. Currently, journalism in Russia is dead because if we write, for example, about the death of Russian soldiers, we risk going to prison for 15 years.

It's like we've had to create a new dictionary to get around this new media law.

We can no longer say the word "war". Saying a phrase like "Glory to Ukraine" is considered extremism. Saying "Stop the war!" is also considered a form of extremism. So we have to talk about the war without using those words. So we mention the "situation in Ukraine" and "tanks" [...], but we have our lawyers review every word.

If I take a look at our channel in Russia, I'll see that the articles are written with strange words, but I understand why. As a journalist, I know that it's a new dictionary that people are using to talk about the war in Ukraine. But there are a lot of other people who don't know what's happening. We know how to read through the lines, but how will other people understand what is happening in Ukraine?

Some Russian YouTubers and bloggers who are against the war use other forms of "coded" language to get around censorship. In an Instagram post from March 6, after the law against false information was passed, Youri Doud, a Russian YouTube star known for reporting on topics that aren't covered by Russian state media, shared a song called "100-Year War."

A band called Noise posted this song the day before the country was bombed by Russian troops. The song doesn't directly mention the war in Ukraine, but, in the comments, the band wrote:

We've talked about [...] what an artist should do when he has absolutely no way to influence the course of a social and political catastrophe that is unfolding. We came to the conclusion that all of us, the pathetic artistic intelligentsia, we are nothing more than the dandruff on the shoulders of a frightened general. And so we have no other choice than to honestly speak up about what is happening. So that's what we are doing. PEACE.

Media law and blocks on social media mean Russian independent YouTubers have no way to speak out

Maya Volf continues:

We've been working for more than ten years in Russia but this is the most difficult period yet. We make money from YouTube, Google and through ads. And right now, because of the crisis, Google has stopped Russian users from being able to monetise their channels. YouTube is the most important channel for getting money. But we can't register as a media outlet because of Russian censorship.

I understand why the international community has enacted sanctions but they are also extremely hurtful to the Russian opposition. And we have to endure that along with the impact of Russian government policies.

People are turning to VPNs and Tor to get around blocks

YouTubers Ilya Varlamov and Youri Doud suggest on their YouTube channels that people watch using a VPN, a technology that enables people to visit blocked websites by hiding their location.

VPN use in Russia has increased by more than 600% since the invasion of Ukraine, according to TOP10VPN, a site that tracks the use of this technology.

But even a VPN isn't a miracle solution. Russians can't pay for a VPN with Visas or Mastercards because of the recent sanctions and have to find a new way of paying.

On March 8, Twitter announced that it would be launching a service on Tor, a network that helps people get around the government's internet blocks and navigate anonymously.

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How Russian YouTubers are trying to get around censorship

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The Russian government has blocked Facebook, Twitter and TikTok and passed a new media law that imposed a prison term of up to 15 years for intentionally spreading "fake news" about the country's military. Our team spoke to Maya Volf, who works as a producer for Russian opposition YouTuber Ilya Varlamov about how they are working to get their messages out despite this censorship.

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Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are rewriting their rules. You could suspend you for posting hate against one group but can talk about the war between the 2 countries. For example, violence against Russians could get you suspended from Facebook in Ukraine. (Paulina Flores)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/25/social-media-ukraine-rules-war-policy/

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Facebook has relaxed its rules on hate speech in Ukraine to allow users to praise the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia, in the context of its resistance to the Russian invasion. A soldier from the battalion is shown here in Kharkiv, Ukraine on March 22. (Andrzej Lange/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

A month ago, praising a neo-Nazi militia or calling for violence against Russians could get you suspended from Facebook in Ukraine. Now, both are allowed in the context of the war between the two countries. Meanwhile, Russian state media organizations that once posted freely are blocked in Europe on the platform.

Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia's war in Ukraine.

It isn't just Facebook that's rewriting its rules in response to Russia's bloody, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. From Google barring ads in Russia and taking down YouTube videos that trivialize the war, to Twitter refusing to recommend tweets that link to Russian state media and TikTok suspending all video uploads from the country in response to its "fake news" law - each of the largest social media platforms has taken ad hoc actions in recent weeks that go beyond or contradict its previous policies.

The movesillustrate how Internet platforms have been scrambling to adapt content policies built around notions of political neutrality to a wartime context. And they suggest that those rule books - the ones that govern who can say what online - need a new chapter on geopolitical conflicts.

"The companies are building precedent as they go along," says Katie Harbath, CEO of the tech policy consulting firm Anchor Change and a former public policy director at Facebook. "Part of my concern is that we're all thinking about the short term" in Ukraine, she says, rather than the underlying principles that should guide how platforms approach wars around the world.

Moving fast in response to a crisis isn't a bad thing in itself.For tech companies that have becomede facto stewards of online information, reacting quickly to global events, and changing the rules where necessary, is essential.On the whole, social media giants have shown an unusual willingness to take a stand against the invasion, prioritizing their responsibilities to Ukrainian users and their ties to democratic governments over their desire to remain neutral, even at the cost of being banned from Russia.

Analysis: In Ukraine, tech platforms abandon the illusion of neutrality

The problem is that they're grafting their responses to the war onto the same global, one-size-fits-all frameworks that they use to moderate content in peacetime, says Emerson T. Brooking, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. And their often opaque decision-making processes leave their policies vulnerable to misinterpretation and questions of legitimacy.

The big tech companies now have playbooks for terrorist attacks, elections, and pandemics - but not wars.

What platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok need, Brooking argues, are not another hard-and-fast set of rules that can be generalized to every conflict, but a process and protocols for wartime that can be applied flexibly and contextually when fighting breaks out - loosely analogous to the commitments tech companies made to address terror content after the 2019 Christchurch massacre in New Zealand. Facebook and other platforms have also developed special protocols over the years for elections, from "war rooms" that monitor for foreign interference or disinformation campaigns to policies specifically prohibiting misinformation about how to vote, as well as for the covid-19 pandemic.

The war in Ukraine should be the impetus for them to think in the same systematic way about the sort of "break glass" policy measures that may be needed specifically in cases of wars, uprisings, or sectarian fighting, says Harbath of Anchor Change - and about what the criteria would be for applying them, not only in Ukraine but in conflicts around the world, including those that command less public and media attention.

Facebook, for its part, has at least started along this path. The company says it began forming dedicated teams in 2018 to "better understand and address the way social media is used in countries experiencing conflict," and that it has been hiring more people with local and subject-area expertise in Myanmar and Ethiopia. Still, its actions in Ukraine - which had struggled to focus Facebook's attention on Russian disinformation as early as 2015 - show it has more work to do.

Russian disinformation on Facebook targeted Ukraine well before the 2016 U.S. election

The Atlantic Council's Brooking believes Facebook probably made the right call in instructing its moderators not to enforce the company's normal rules on calls for violence against Ukrainians expressing outrage at the Russian invasion. Banning Ukrainians from saying anything mean about Russians online while their cities are being bombed would be cruelly heavy-handed. But the way those changes came to light - via a leak to the news agency Reuters - led to mischaracterizations, which Russian leaders capitalized on to demonize the company as Russophobic.

After an initial backlash, including threats from Russia to ban Facebook and Instagram, parent company Meta clarified that calling for the death of Russian leader Vladimir Putin was still against its rules, perhaps hoping to salvage its presence there. If so, it didn't work: A Russian court on Monday officially enacted the ban, and Russian authorities are pushing to have Meta ruled an "extremist organization" amid a crackdown on speech and media.

In reality, Meta's moves appear to have been consistent with its approach in at least some prior conflicts. As Brooking noted in Slate, Facebook also seems to have quietly relaxed its enforcement of rules against calling for or glorifying violence against the Islamic State in Iraq in 2017, against the Taliban in Afghanistan last year, and on both sides of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020. If the company hoped that tweaking its moderation guidelines piecemeal and in secret for each conflict would allow it to avert scrutiny, the Russia debacle proves otherwise.

Ideally, in the case of wars, tech giants would have a framework for making such fraught decisions in concert with experts on human rights, Internet access and cybersecurity, as well as experts on the region in question and perhaps even officials from relevant governments, Brooking suggests.

In the absence of established processes, major social platforms ended up banning Russian state media in Europe reactively rather than proactively, framing it as compliance with the requests of the European Union and European governments. Meanwhile, the same accounts stayed active in the United States on some platforms, reinforcing the perception that the takedowns were not their choice. That risks setting a precedent that could come back to haunt the companies when authoritarian governments demand bans on outside media or even their own country's opposition parties in the future.

Pro-Russia rebels are still using Facebook to recruit fighters, spread propaganda

Wars also pose particular problems for tech platforms' notions of political neutrality, misinformation and depictions of graphic violence.

U.S.-based tech companies have clearly picked a side in Ukraine, and it has come at a cost: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now Google News have all been blocked in Russia, and YouTube could be next.

Yet the companies haven't clearly articulated the basis on which they've taken that stand, or how that might apply in other settings, from Kashmir to Nagorno-Karabakh, Yemen and the West Bank. While some, including Facebook, have developed comprehensive state-media policies, others have cracked down on Russian outlets without spelling out the criteria on which they might take similar actions against, say, Chinese state media.

Harbath, the former Facebook official, said a hypothetical conflict involving China is the kind of thing that tech giants - along with other major Western institutions - should be planning ahead for now, rather than relying on the reactive approach they've used in Ukraine.

"This is easier said than done, but I'd like to see them building out the capacity for more long-term thinking," Harbath says. "The world keeps careening from crisis to crisis. They need a group of people who are not going to be consumed by the day-to-day," who can "think through some of the strategic playbooks" they'll turn to in future wars.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have embraced the concept of "misinformation" as a descriptor for false or misleading content about voting, covid-19, or vaccines, with mixed results. But the war in Ukraine highlights the inadequacy of that term for distinguishing between, say, pro-Russian disinformation campaigns and pro-Ukrainian myths such as the " Ghost of Kyiv." Both may be factually dubious, but they play very different roles in the information battle.

The platforms seem to understand this intuitively: There were no widespread crackdowns on Ukrainian media outlets for spreading what might fairly be deemed resistance propaganda. Yet they're still struggling to adapt old vocabulary and policies to such distinctions.

For instance, Twitter justified taking down Russian disinformation about the Mariupol hospital bombings under its policies on "abusive behavior" and " denying mass casualty events," the latter of which was designed for behavior such as Alex Jones' dismissal of the Sandy Hook shootings. YouTube cited an analogous 2019 policy on "hateful" content, including Holocaust denial, in announcing that it would prohibit any videos that minimize Russia's invasion.

TikTok has long tried to stay out of politics. Russia's invasion is making that harder.

As for depictions of graphic violence, it makes sense for a platform such as YouTube to prohibit, say, videos of corpses or killings under normal circumstances. But in wars, such footage could be crucial evidence of war crimes, and taking it down could help the perpetrators conceal them.

YouTube and other platforms have exemptions to their policies for newsworthy or documentary content. And, to their credit, they seem to be treating such videos and images with relative care in Ukraine, says Dia Kayyali, associate director for advocacy at Mnemonic, a nonprofit devoted to archiving evidence of human rights violations. But that raises questions of consistency.

"They're doing a lot of things in Ukraine that advocates around the world have asked them for in other circumstances, that they haven't been willing to provide," Kayyali says. In the Palestinian territories, for instance, platforms take down "a lot of political speech, a lot of people speaking out against Israel, against human rights violations." Facebook has also been accused in the past of censoring posts that highlight police brutality against Muslims in Kashmir.

Of course, it isn't only tech companies that have paid closer attention to - and taken a stronger stand on - Ukraine than other human rights crises around the world. One could say the same of the media, governments and the public at large. But for Silicon Valley giants that pride themselves on being global and systematic in their outlook - even if their actions don't always reflect it - a more coherent set of criteria for responding to conflicts seems like a reasonable ask.

"I would love to see the level of contextual analysis that Meta is doing for their exceptions to rules against urging violence to Russian soldiers, and to their allowance of praise for the Azov battalion " - the Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia that has been resisting the Russian invasion - applied to conflicts in the Arabic-speaking world, Kayyali says. "It's not too late for them to start doing some of these things in other places."

Correction: An earlier version of this story used an incorrect term for the Arabic language.

UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT

HAND CURATED

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Analysis | Social media wasn't ready for this war. It needs a plan for the next one.

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A month ago, praising a neo-Nazi militia or calling for violence against Russians could get you suspended from Facebook in Ukraine. Now, both are allowed in the context of the war between the two countries. Meanwhile, Russian state media organizations that once posted freely are blocked in Europe on the platform.

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SpaceX provides internet to Ukraine (Gresia Cubias)

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SpaceX provides internet to Ukraine (Gresia Cubias)

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SpaceX has been providing Ukraine with internet ever since Russian invaded. They sent many supplies to them, such as a Wi-Fi router, antenna, and a mounting tripod. These Starlink kits connect to the SpaceX's network orbit.

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WASHINGTON - SpaceX has sent "thousands" of Starlink satellite internet kits to Ukraine, company President Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC on Tuesday.

Elon Musk's space company began sending Ukraine shipments of Starlink satellite kits - which come with an antenna, a mounting tripod and a Wi-Fi router - shortly after Russia invaded. Ukrainians can use the Starlink kits to connect directly to SpaceX's network in orbit, with the company having launched about 2,000 satellites to date.

"I'm proud that we were able to provide the terminals to folks in Ukraine. It's been enormously helpful, I think, to ensure people are still communicating," Shotwell said during a panel at the Satellite 2022 conference in Washington, D.C.

Musk had Starlink terminals sent to Ukraine after Ukrainian official Mykhailo Fedorov asked the CEO for help while Russia's attacks were disrupting internet service in the country.

Shotwell, who spoke to CNBC after the panel, did not have a more specific total on the number of dishes the company has shipped to Ukraine. She added that most of the funding for the Starlink kits has come from private sources, but added that "France helped" and "I think Poland is helping."

"I don't think the U.S. has given us any money to give terminals to the Ukraine," Shotwell said.

The French and Polish embassies in the U.S. did not immediately respond to CNBC requests for comment.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX sent thousands of Starlink satellite internet dishes to Ukraine, company's president says

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WASHINGTON - SpaceX has sent "thousands" of Starlink satellite internet kits to Ukraine, company President Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC on Tuesday. Elon Musk's space company began sending Ukraine shipments of Starlink satellite kits - which come with an antenna, a mounting tripod and a Wi-Fi router - shortly after Russia invaded.

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U.S. spy agency probes sabotage of satellite internet during Russian invasion

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U.S. spy agency probes sabotage of satellite internet during Russian invasion

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(Kimberly Amador)
Russian hackers disabled modems that communicate with Viasat Inc's KA-SAT satellite, which supplies internet access to some customers in Europe, including Ukraine. Network gets stabilized and they begin restoring service and activating terminals as quickly as possible," spokesperson Chris Phillips says in an email, adding that the company was prioritizing "critical infrastructure and humanitarian assistance."

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March 11 (Reuters) - Western intelligence agencies are investigating a cyberattack by unidentified hackers that disrupted broadband satellite internet access in Ukraine coinciding with Russia's invasion, according to three people with direct knowledge of the incident.

Analysts for the U.S. National Security Agency, French government cybersecurity organization ANSSI, and Ukrainian intelligence are assessing whether the remote sabotage of a satellite internet provider's service was the work of Russian-state backed hackers preparing the battlefield by attempting to sever communications.

The digital blitz on the satellite service began on Feb. 24 between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., just as Russian forces started going in and firing missiles, striking major Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv.

The consequences are still being investigated but satellite modems belonging to tens of thousands of customers in Europe were knocked offline, according to an official of U.S. telecommunications firm Viasat, which owns the affected network.

The hackers disabled modems that communicate with Viasat Inc's KA-SAT satellite, which supplies internet access to some customers in Europe, including Ukraine. More than two weeks later some remain offline, resellers told Reuters.

What appears to be one of the most significant wartime cyberattacks publicly disclosed so far has piqued the interest of Western intelligence because Viasat acts as a defense contractor for both the United States and multiple allies.

Government contracts reviewed by Reuters show that KA-SAT has provided internet connectivity to Ukrainian military and police units.

Pablo Breuer, a former technologist for U.S. special operations command, or SOCOM, said knocking out satellite internet connectivity could handicap Ukraine's ability to combat Russian forces.

"Traditional land-based radios only reach so far. If you're using modern smart systems, smart weapons, trying to do combined arms maneuvers, then you must rely on these satellites," said Breuer.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Moscow has repeatedly rejected allegations that it participates in cyberattacks.

Russian soldiers have besieged Ukrainian cities in what the Kremlin describes as a "de-Nazification" operation that has been denounced by the West as an unprovoked assault and led to severe sanctions against Moscow as punishment. read more

MODEMS INOPERATIVE

Viasat said in a statement that the disruption for customers in Ukraine and elsewhere was triggered by a "deliberate, isolated and external cyber event" but has yet to provide a detailed, public explanation of what happened.

"The network is stabilized and we are restoring service and activating terminals as quickly as possible," spokesperson Chris Phillips said in an email, adding that the company was prioritizing "critical infrastructure and humanitarian assistance."

The affected modems appeared to be completely inoperative, according to Jaroslav Stritecky, who runs Czech telecommunications company INTV. Normally, he said, the four status lights on the curved, SurfBeam 2 modems would indicate whether they were connected to the internet. After the attack, the lights on the Viasat-made devices would not turn on at all.

The Viasat official said a misconfiguration in the "management section" of the satellite network had allowed the hackers remote access into the modems, knocking them offline. He said most of the affected devices would need to be reprogrammed either by a technician on site or at a repair depot and that some would have to be swapped out.

The Viasat official wasn't explicit about what the "management section" of the network referred to and declined to provide further details. KA-SAT and its associated ground stations, which Viasat purchased last year from European company Eutelsat, are still operated by a Eutelsat subsidiary.

Eutelsat referred questions back to Viasat.

Viasat has hired U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which specializes in tracking state-sponsored hackers, to investigate the intrusion, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Spokespeople for the NSA, ANSSI, and Mandiant declined to comment.

Viasat said government clients who procured services directly from the company were unaffected by the disruption. The KA-SAT network is operated, however, by a third party, which in turn farms out service through various distributors.

Over the past several years Ukraine's military and security services have purchased several different communications systems that run over Viasat's network, according to contracts posted on ProZorro, a Ukrainian transparency platform.

A message seeking comment from the Ukrainian military was not immediately returned.

Some internet distributors are still waiting to replace their devices.

Stritecky, the Czech telecom executive, said he did not blame Viasat.

He recalled coming into work on the morning of the invasion and seeing a monitor showing regional satellite coverage in the Czech Republic, neighboring Slovakia, and Ukraine all in red.

"It was immediately clear what happened," he said.

Reporting by James Pearson, Raphael Satter, Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman; Editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Exclusive: U.S. spy agency probes sabotage of satellite internet during Russian invasion, sources say

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March 11 (Reuters) - Western intelligence agencies are investigating a cyberattack by unidentified hackers that disrupted broadband satellite internet access in Ukraine coinciding with Russia's invasion, according to three people with direct knowledge of the incident. Analysts for the U.S.

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How Ukraine's internet is still working despite constant cyberattacks. 

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How Ukraine's internet is still working despite constant cyberattacks. 

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(Miguel De La Rosa)
Cybersecurity experts knew that the first shots of a modern war would include taking out their ability to communicate and taking down the internet. Ukranian telecom workers have been working day and night around the clock maintaining availability to the internet keeping a lot of major cities able to still access it and keep citizens connected.

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So apparently, Twitter "accidentally" removed accounts documenting Russia's military actions.

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https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/tech/social-media-response-russia-ukraine/index.html
Mark Castaneda

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here's how social media platforms are responding to russia's invasion of ukraine  - cnn

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Here's how social media platforms are responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

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Ukraine's official Twitter account wants @Russia to be removed from the platform. YouTube is facing scrutiny for allowing a Russian broadcaster who is widely viewed as part of the country's propaganda machine to continue making money from ads on the video site.

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The Red-Cross and UN are only able to do much at this time, so an alternate solution came to mind. A Ukrainian Software developer in the US created an application called,"UkrainNow" which utilizes messaging and volunteers to help aid in the crisis. The app allows Ukrainians to reach out for help, to which teams of volunteers are organized and sent out in buses to go to pick up any refugees. The applications also allow for planning the safest routes to take, or keep up-to-date with the road conditions, as traveling has proven to be very dangerous.
(Victoria Gordon)

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Finding a safe route out of Ukraine is not easy.

One challenge facing those looking to escape is to find one that is not under heavy bombardment from Russian forces.

The UN says more than three million people have have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion just over three weeks ago.

So how do people actually find safe passage out of the country?

One way is via transport arranged by dozens of volunteers based thousands of miles away, who liaise with fellow volunteers in Ukraine.

They, in turn, send information in real-time about safe roads to drivers who can rescue busloads of people.

But even using this method, travelling is not without considerable danger.

In other words, they are crowdsourcing safe passage out of a war zone.

Civilians evacuating civilians

Artur Kiulian, a Ukrainian software developer living in the US, was one of many who answered the call for assistance from the country's digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov.

Artur used his skills gained in the tech industry to form UkraineNow, which uses volunteers and messaging apps to evacuate people from Ukraine.

"I've been building tech start-ups for the last decade," he said. "I'm an engineer myself, I have a degree in systems of artificial intelligence.

"There is limited capacity [from] the UN and the Red Cross. There is no-one else to help. It's all civilians evacuating civilians."

When he spoke to the BBC, Artur was organising the evacuation of children with cancer from Ukraine to Poland. From there, they planned to travel to a hospital in Germany.

He and his team organised the bus, the driver, and the place for them to stay across the border.

But crucially, they crowdsourced the safe route too.

How does it work?

Firstly, civilians in Ukraine make requests for help online.

The team in the US receives the requests and allocates them to buses which have been purchased or rented with the money UkraineNow raises.

Drivers are then put in contact with the civilians, and the evacuation is arranged.

The exact process and methods used are more detailed than this, but the information is not being shared here in order to protect the organisation from cyber and real-world attacks.

The BBC spoke to one of the people helping on the ground.

Salam, a former refugee himself, organised a bus filled with people out of a city being shelled by the Russian army and across the border into Moldova.

"We have a [group] of women and children that is going to travel to a safe place," he said. "And then they can travel from there to wherever they want."

He says he thinks he has made the journey from Ukraine to Moldova about 16 or 17 times already in the war.

"It's a dangerous journey," he said. "Everybody's nervous... anything can happen.

"The road is completely empty right now. We're just driving ourselves and we're far away from the border - so we are in no man's land here.

"If they stay in their city they will be bombed. They're running for their lives.

"We have an amazing team doing everything they can. There's so many good people on our team that are trying to help so many people."

'This is destroying families'

Salam explained the desperate situation for the people on his bus.

"There's a lot of sadness here," he said. "A lot of women and children have left their husbands and their fathers, and they don't know if they're going to see each other again.

"They just said goodbye, cried, and they left them. You cannot imagine how difficult it is for them."

One of the people who managed to get aboard Salam's bus is Maryia - not her real name - who says she found out about the escape plan through a messaging app.

"I took this phone number from some group [on the app]," she said. "I don't remember exactly."

She said it was recommended to her by other people in her city, which has been shelled by Russia.

For Maryia, she felt she had no choice but to leave.

"We are going to be without food," she said. "We are going to be bombed in our building.

"I had some work projects, and now they're frozen, and I cannot work. Of course, I cannot get money. So I need to think about my future life.

These are the stakes for the evacuees - who in this case were able to escape.

War in Ukraine: More coverage

War in Ukraine: More coverage

Salam was able to guide the bus to the Moldovan border and safety. But there is no guarantee that future journeys will be equally successful.

This is because the margins for the evacuation are incredibly tight. A previous route used to evacuate civilians was devastated by bombings only 10 hours after the bus left Ukraine.

But Salam will continue driving regardless. "We're not going to stop before this war's going to stop, and people can go back to their homes and be safe," he said.

"Until that, we need to show our solidarity and do everything we can to save people."

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Ukraine: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone

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Finding a safe route out of Ukraine is not easy. One challenge facing those looking to escape is to find one that is not under heavy bombardment from Russian forces. The UN says more than three million people have have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion just over three weeks ago.

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Private companies boycotts of Russia Could Backfire.

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Private companies boycotts of Russia Could Backfire.

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Tyrone Bailey

Nestlé joined the more than 450 companies that have already left Russia or suspended operations there. Like the Swiss consumer products giant, many left only after being targeted by internet activists.

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Last week, after enormous consumer pressure, Nestlé joined the more than 450 companies that have already left Russia or suspended operations there. Like the Swiss consumer products giant, many left only after being targeted by internet activists.

Indeed, consumer pressure has yielded spectacular results. As of March 25, more than 450 companies had curtailed operations in Russia, up from only a few dozen on Feb. 27, four days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That's when Yale University management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld created his infamous list. The companies on his list cover a wide spectrum: The law firm Baker McKenzie is merely giving up servicing Kremlin entities, while Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali is leaving the country altogether, and Renault is closing its Russian plants. (Airlines feature on Sonnenfeld's list-but as Russia has banned Western airlines from its airspace, they deserve little credit for this step.)

In some cases, the corporate reversals have come almost overnight. On March 8, Nikkei Asia reported remarks by Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo's owner, Fast Retailing. "Clothing is a necessity of life," he said. "The people of Russia have the same right to live as we do." Uniqlo was not going to close its 49 stores in Russia. Outraged supporters of Ukraine took to the internet to unleash their collective fury against the Japanese retailer. "Right after a Russian tank ran over a mail delivery van near the Ukrainian village of Egorovka, killing a mailman and a mailwoman inside, UNIQLO's CEO Tadashi Yanai pledges to keep doing business with Russia. When will you have enough money UNIQLO?" one angry customer lamented on Twitter. It worked. On March 10, Fast Retailing announced it was suspending operations in Russia.

Last week, after enormous consumer pressure, Nestlé joined the more than 450 companies that have already left Russia or suspended operations there. Like the Swiss consumer products giant, many left only after being targeted by internet activists.

Indeed, consumer pressure has yielded spectacular results. As of March 25, more than 450 companies had curtailed operations in Russia, up from only a few dozen on Feb. 27, four days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That's when Yale University management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld created his infamous list. The companies on his list cover a wide spectrum: The law firm Baker McKenzie is merely giving up servicing Kremlin entities, while Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali is leaving the country altogether, and Renault is closing its Russian plants. (Airlines feature on Sonnenfeld's list-but as Russia has banned Western airlines from its airspace, they deserve little credit for this step.)

In some cases, the corporate reversals have come almost overnight. On March 8, Nikkei Asia reported remarks by Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo's owner, Fast Retailing. "Clothing is a necessity of life," he said. "The people of Russia have the same right to live as we do." Uniqlo was not going to close its 49 stores in Russia. Outraged supporters of Ukraine took to the internet to unleash their collective fury against the Japanese retailer. "Right after a Russian tank ran over a mail delivery van near the Ukrainian village of Egorovka, killing a mailman and a mailwoman inside, UNIQLO's CEO Tadashi Yanai pledges to keep doing business with Russia. When will you have enough money UNIQLO?" one angry customer lamented on Twitter. It worked. On March 10, Fast Retailing announced it was suspending operations in Russia.

Nestlé, after vowing to stay, has now made a similar reversal. Its plans to stay in Russia had been greeted with Twitter campaigns such as "chocolate with a taste of pain." It's not the Swiss conglomerate's first encounter with consumer anger. In the 1970s and '80s, for example, the company's callous promotion of baby formula to mothers in developing countries caused protests and boycotts by Western consumers. On March 22, Anonymous claimed it had hacked Nestlé. The following day, the Swiss conglomerate announced it would stop selling all but essential items in Russia.

A fair number of businesses will have decided their various degrees of exit on moral grounds. Many others, though, have done so as a result of activist pressure of the kind that caused Uniqlo and Nestlé to change course. "Divestment campaigns against particular countries aren't new," said Alison Taylor, a New York-based environmental, social, and governance (ESG) consultant. "Remember the campaigns against companies doing business in South Africa. But the debate on companies doing business in Russia is huge. We're watching them more than we're watching [U.S. President Joe] Biden."

No company wants to be seen as supporting Vladimir Putin's war. Great, you say: Morally upstanding international activists have forced Western companies to do the right thing. But forcing Western companies to leave Russia is not as black and white as it may seem-and not just because their departure will cost many ordinary Russians their jobs.

The companies that have announced plans to leave Russia face considerable losses, as Russian authorities are planning to seize such companies' assets. Mercedes-Benz, for example, predicts a loss of about $2.2 billion. Some of the criticized companies are no doubt deeply immoral and plan to remain in Russia until their profits dry up. Others, though, may simply be holding their tongue until they've moved their assets out of the country, so as not to sacrifice them to the Kremlin.

And even though ESG issues are rapidly becoming more important, companies fundamentally exist to make money. The businesses now leaving Russia must look to make more money elsewhere. "Russia is a relatively small market, and companies will lick their wounds and consider alternative plans," said Michael Treschow, a former CEO of Electrolux and chairman of Unilever. "But the Ukraine crisis is having an impact on the global economy as well. Companies will face major difficulties if we head into a recession."

But even those without the slightest interest in companies' financial performance ought to consider this: When should consumers get involved to pressure a company into changing its course? With a war needing to be stopped, punishing Russia with the united might of Western consumer brands makes perfect sense. Indeed, consumer activists would do well to next target their fire on Chinese brands. DiDi and Tencent, for example, have said they'll stay in Russia. But it raises the question: Why are Western consumers up in arms about companies doing business in Russia when Western firms have been operating in Saudi Arabia for decades-despite the country's discrimination against women and persecution of human rights activists, not to mention countless executions-without barely any Twitter outrage?

And Chinese activists, too, can launch corporate boycotts against brands representing certain countries. That's what happened to H&M, Nike, and Burberry in 2021, allegedly over their muted criticism of Beijing's Xinjiang policies but more likely in retaliation against Xinjiang-linked sanctions imposed by the European Union, Britain, and the United States on Chinese officials. And nine years earlier, riots erupted in China after Japan bought a group of small (but contested) South China Sea islands from a private Japanese owner. The Chinese government treated the riots with considerable leniency. Internet-savvy Chinese consumers will take from Western consumers' campaigns over the past few weeks that they, too, can swiftly force companies to change strategy.

Consider what Western companies might do if Chinese consumers pressured them to leave Taiwan. In fact, just look at what happened to the NBA when the general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted an image supporting Hong Kong. Chinese internet users and trolls immediately began demanding a boycott of the Rockets-and the team was promptly dropped by its Chinese sponsors. The basketball association, which has annual revenues of some $4 billion in China, quickly issued an apology for the tweet. "Companies are resorting to governance by Twitter," noted Taylor, the ESG consultant.

Yes, shaming companies is valid, a moral duty even. But shamers should first do their homework to establish which companies are worthy of shaming-and then be consistent in repeatedly boycotting the behavior they denounce. As things stand, Western companies may conclude they should do more business in Saudi Arabia, whose seven-year war in Yemen has not caused massive consumer boycotts. And Western activists should consider the lessons Chinese consumers will learn from the boycotts of Western brands in Russia and how they might weaponize that against the United States in the event, for example, of a war in Taiwan.

Today's consumers, with their high expectations on corporate ethics, can improve corporate behavior. And they'd have lasting heft if they promised not just to boycott a brand operating in a questionable country but to reward it with their patronage if it left the country. (Imagine vows of "I will happily pay more in this Russia-free chain store.") Otherwise, companies may conclude that the activists are just a flash mob and not really serious about their boycott (hence, the many sneaky announcements by companies to "suspend new content releases" and "suspend operations" on Sonnenfeld's list).

And those companies will, far from being properly shamed, simply wait out the consumer anger while making noble noises. That would help neither Ukraine nor any other victims of repugnant regimes.

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Last week, after enormous consumer pressure, Nestlé joined the more than 450 companies that have already left Russia or suspended operations there. Like the Swiss consumer products giant, many left only after being targeted by internet activists. Indeed, consumer pressure has yielded spectacular results.

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The Crowdsourcing Effort to Get Body Armor, Drones and Helmets to Ukraine (Alexis Guevara)

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The Crowdsourcing Effort to Get Body Armor, Drones and Helmets to Ukraine (Alexis Guevara)

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The U.S. and its allies are providing Ukraine with weapons such as missiles to target tanks and aircraft. The likes of Mr. Prytula, who says his organization has raised the equivalent of around $8.5 million in the month since the conflict started, are trying to quickly fill gaps in nonlethal equipment, from body armor to drones with thermal imaging.

The effort has helped Ukraine stop the advance of Russia’s better-equipped invading force in many parts of the country. In Ukraine’s war of skirmishes and ambushes, where small teams are inflicting costly damage on Russian troops, basic gear can make a big difference and help a lot.

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Serhiy Prytula recently posted a video requesting help for Ukraine's military. Beside him was a man in a balaclava and another holding a piece of shrapnel.

The shrapnel, he said, came from a Russian warplane shot down by a Ukrainian fighter who is part of a unit hunting enemy vehicles and aircraft in pickup trucks.

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James Marson and Ian Lovett | Photographs by Christopher Occhicone for The Wall Street Journal 

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The Crowdsourcing Effort to Get Body Armor, Drones and Helmets to Ukraine

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Serhiy Prytula recently posted a video requesting help for Ukraine's military. Beside him was a man in a balaclava and another holding a piece of shrapnel. The shrapnel, he said, came from a Russian warplane shot down by a Ukrainian fighter who is part of a unit hunting enemy vehicles and aircraft in pickup trucks.

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Despite the war, being a cyber attack and media blackout from Russian hackers., Ukraine still has their internet largely intact. With the help of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service. Ukraine has received thousands of Starlink terminals, satellite service is not generally fast or powerful as inter connections on the ground, but is a useful back up.

Ana Galindo

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In the days before Russia invaded Ukraine, many observers thought the oncoming tanks would be preceded by cyber attacks and a media blackout as Russian hackers took down the country's communications.

Instead, Ukraine's IT infrastructure has held up, allowing officials and citizens alike to dominate the global narrative with images of confused Russian soldiers and downed fighter jets.

"We have seen some internet outages, we have seen them try to impact the information and communication environment, not the least of which is striking, you know, television towers and that kind of thing," a senior defense official told reporters last week.

But overall, the infrastructure remains operational. Why? Only the Russian leadership knows.

"They perhaps have found some value to keeping some public communications open for their own purposes, for their own decision-making processes, but that's just speculation," the official said.

One prevailing theory among defense experts is that Russia is relying on the network to conduct its attack.

"Putting a communications network together, other than radios, is actually really hard," said John Ferrari, a retired Army two-star general-turned-non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Ferrari noted the U.S. Army's own struggles to develop WIN-T, a joint expeditionary communications network.

He said Russian forces are likely navigating and communicating via cell phones and local internet connections.

"So I think they felt that they were going to go in there and ride that communication network. And you see it, right? You see the reports coming out of them using cell phones and local internet connections," he said.

That's likely why the cell towers are still standing, Ferrari said. "You can't take down the cell phone towers, because then you blind yourself."

In some cases, where the Russian Army has struck cell towers, it took did just that: eliminated its ability to use its own secure communications, Bellingcat executive editor Christo Grozev tweeted on Monday.

"The idiots tried to use the Era cryptophones in Kharkiv, after destroying many 3G cell towers and also replacing others with stingrays. Era needs 3G/4G to communicate. The Russian army is equipped with secure phones that can't work in areas where the Russian army operates."

Even if some of the convoys had satellite dishes to communicate independently of the towers, the nature of an invasion would make them almost impossible to use, said Mark Montgomery, a retired Navy rear admiral who is now an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"You know how hard those are [to operate] once they move?" Montgomery said. "When you sit there fixed, it works perfectly okay. This works great. And then the minute you move it, you know, now you're like, 'Holy crap, I can't get a synchronization.' If there's crypto riding on it, it gets ten times harder."

David Maxwell, a retired Army special forces colonel, said Russia may also be preserving the networks to eavesdrop on the Ukrainian military and civilian resistance.

Last week, SpaceX founder Elon Musk moved 47 Starlink telecommunications satellites and sent a truckload of ground terminals to Ukraine. But those terminals were immediately targeted and jammed, leading Musk to shift SpaceX priorities to "cyber defense & overcoming signal jamming," he tweeted over the weekend.

Another reason the Ukrainian communications net may still be up: the country has been working to harden it against attack, with U.S. and European help, Ferrari and Montgomery said. These efforts began after Russia annexed Crimea, and accelerated after Russia targeted Ukraine's power grid in 2016 and 2017. Since then, Montgomery said, "Ukrainians have done a much better job in their cyber protection efforts."

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Why Is Ukraine's Internet Still Up? Perhaps Because the Invaders Need It

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In the days before Russia invaded Ukraine, many observers thought the oncoming tanks would be preceded by cyber attacks and a media blackout as Russian hackers took down the country's communications. Instead, Ukraine's IT infrastructure has held up, allowing officials and citizens alike to dominate the global narrative with images of confused Russian soldiers and downed fighter jets.

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Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage

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Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage

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President Vladimir V. Putin has blocked foreign news networks in Russia.They are now enforcing punishment against civilians who are "spreading false information". SImply calling the war "war" or and "invasion" is a punishable crime.
(Rubi Campos Carmona)

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Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage (Published 2022)

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Contradicting the Kremlin on the war in Ukraine — even calling it a war — is now a crime, prompting independent media to close, and Russia cut off access to Facebook, the BBC and other news sources.

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So apparently, Twitter "accidentally" removed accounts documenting Russia's military actions. They've apologized for it and have given back access to some of the accounts. Rumors have spread that mass reporting by Russian forces caused that to happen but that was said to be inaccurate since, no matter how much reporting there is, that type of stuff doesn't happen automatically, which makes sense since that would be dumb. Their spokesperson, Trenton Kennedy, said that they're always on the lookout for actions that violate Twitter policies, specifically the manipulation policy, which forbids the amplification or suppression of information, and its policy against state-affiliated information operations.

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Twitter mistakenly removed accounts documenting Russian military

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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.

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Russia pushes to get rid of public opposition and media outlets talking about the invasion of Ukraine. The government blocked websites that speak Russian as they speak of real events and not the "Diplomatic military operation" that the government wants its citizens to believe. This large withdrawal of the full internet leaves people without the proper information. (Emmanuel Estrada)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/world/europe/russia-censorship-media-crackdown.htm

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Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage (Published 2022)

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Contradicting the Kremlin on the war in Ukraine — even calling it a war — is now a crime, prompting independent media to close, and Russia cut off access to Facebook, the BBC and other news sources.

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Twitter's monitoring process throughout the Ukraine events

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Twitter's monitoring process throughout the Ukraine events

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Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy states that they want their users to be safe and so Twitter will be monitoring and making sure that there isn't any misinformation spread. Twitter has also had live audio discussions on Twitter spaces about the conflict of news reporters at major news reporters. The company has also shared many safety tips for users who are in the midst of the events happening in Ukraine or Russia.

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here's how social media platforms are responding to russia's invasion of ukraine  - cnn

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Here's how social media platforms are responding to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

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Ukraine's official Twitter account wants @Russia to be removed from the platform. YouTube is facing scrutiny for allowing a Russian broadcaster who is widely viewed as part of the country's propaganda machine to continue making money from ads on the video site.

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How influencers are protesting against the war in Ukraine. (Sem Jimenez)

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How influencers are protesting against the war in Ukraine. (Sem Jimenez)

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Russian influencers are opposing the government and saying no to the war in Ukraine. Of course, there are many dangerous risks that come with protesting, such as, getting fined or arrested. These influencers have spoken out about the truth behind everything that has happened in Ukraine. Videos on TikTok have shown many of the brutalities that have occurred and the civilian lives have been lost during the war. Overall, it is important for the world to know about this in order to prevent any further casualties.

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ocial media influencers are often maligned for their vapidity, but as the Russian army moves across Ukraine some of Russia's biggest digital influencers have become beacons of resistance. Many are speaking out about their unease at the speed and brutality with which the Russian president is leading his country to war. Ukrainian influencers, meanwhile, are also braving the risks of attack from the advancing army to make sure to document the horror of war in mainland Europe.

Some of Russia's biggest names in the digital sphere have spoken out against war. The daughter of Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press secretary, posted a message reading "No to war" on her Instagram story, before quickly deleting it. Max Galkin, the husband of Alla Pugacheva, and one of Russia's biggest stars, posted a black square on Instagram and the message "Нет войне!" ("no to war!") to his 9.4m followers. Fashion designer Svetlana Taccori took time out of Milan fashion week to post a photo holding a Ukrainian flag and the same message. Influencer Lova Olala painted the Russian and Ukrainian flag on each cheek and the caption "I have nothing to say". The independent Russian journalist Ilya Varlamov has posted regular photos and videos highlighting Russian brutality, calling for a cessation of violence in Ukraine.

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Niki Proshin, a 27-year-old Russian TikToker with 750,000 followers, started posting about the invasion of Ukraine as soon as Russian troops crossed the border. He posted a single video to TikTok addressing the many questions he received from his followers asking for his thoughts on Ukraine. He spoke out about the war, and about his anger that Vladimir Putin launched the attack at night. "Showing my opinion publicly helps foreigners understand Russian people more and helps to keep the bridge between normal people outside of Russia, and normal people in Russia," says Proshin. He followed it up with another video, taken live at street protests in his home city of St Petersburg.

Yet many of his friends spoke out, choosing to post images of black squares on Instagram or videos speaking out against the invasion. "The current situation touched us much more than the events of the last year," he said.

Xenia Tchoumitcheva, born in the Russian mountain city of Magnitogorsk, chose a black and white picture of an espresso as the backdrop for her pronouncement on the invasion. "In my veins run both Russian and Ukrainian blood," she wrote. "I don't have any political knowledge nor opinion, but all I can say is: I am always against war and for the people," she wrote to her 2 million followers.

The risk for Russian influencers, celebrities and journalists in speaking out against the Russian dictator is obvious - those who don't toe the government line can find themselves arrested or worse, as those being arrested for protesting on the streets in Russia know well. But considering their reach, a well-timed statement to millions on Instagram or TikTok can inflict considerable reputational damage to Putin's claims of unity behind his cause.

"This is something pretty common that comes from both Ukrainian and Russian influencers," says Roman Kolodko, chief operating officer of eastern European influencer marketing agency Mediacube, which represents a number of Russian and Ukrainian creators. Kolodko spoke as he fled Ukraine for Poland. "Many big influencers are in Ukrainian cities that have been and are being attacked right now, and they need to spread their word," he added - and those who aren't have family there.

Ukrainian influencers who remain in the country have adapted their content to match the changed circumstances of their new lives under the shadow of invasion. Until yesterday, Anna Prytula's Instagram feed looked like any other relatively large influencer's: impossibly perfect cakes, overflowing bouquets of flowers and oodles of boxes and bags from Louis Vuitton lined the frame of her feed. Her lifestyle was lapped up by her million followers, 71% of whom are Ukrainian, and 16% of whom are Russian.

Then Russian boots trampled over Ukraine, and alarmingly close to Prytula's home city of Lviv. Suddenly Prytula's posts changed. Gone were the impossibly glam photos outside luxury hotels; in their place, a stark red square with white text: "at 5am Russia is attacking the territory of Ukraine". Her Instagram stories changed soon afterwards from glimpses into her glamorous life to footage of missiles raining down over her homeland, pleas to Nato to intervene, and advice on how to find help and where to hide.

As reality intrudes into the western order's way of thinking about Russia's attitude to risk, so too has the hyperreal, polished world of social media has been hit with a reality check. Ukrainian travel blogger Elena Mandziuk showed her million followers how to make molotov cocktails on her Instagram stories. Mary Furtas, a Ukrainian entrepreneur with nearly 55,000 followers, pivoted her profile to post overtly political pleas on 19 February. On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, like Prytula, she posted a similar red square. The text, however, was different: "Every Russian is responsible for this," she wrote.

It hasn't escaped TikTok users' notice that the app's For You feed has been filled with videos about events in Ukraine. Most people who study it believe the TikTok algorithm rewards people who are speaking about current events. Some of those are legitimate, informative videos - Ukrainian-British TikToker Marta Vasyuta has shared with the world the destructive aftermath of Russian attacks from around the country, acting as a one-woman content curation desk fuelled by righteous anger - but others are chasing likes. The app has struggled with misrepresentative or outright faked live streams and videos that are designed either to confuse or to capitalise on interest in Ukraine.

But those who are authentic will continue posting content - and for good reason. Proshin, the Russian TikToker who felt he had to speak out, says his posts aren't political, but instead connect at a human level with the rest of the world. "I hope we'll make people understand that 'Russian people' is not equal to the Russian government," he says. "Some Russian people support the political decisions of our government, but from my personal perspective, they're a minority. In this situation, 'Russia' equals 'people who can make decisions'. The majority of my friends have no power to make decisions."

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The first TikTok war: how are influencers in Russia and Ukraine responding?

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ocial media influencers are often maligned for their vapidity, but as the Russian army moves across Ukraine some of Russia's biggest digital influencers have become beacons of resistance. Many are speaking out about their unease at the speed and brutality with which the Russian president is leading his country to war.

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With millions of people flooding Tiktok many people are also relying on or hearing most of Ukraine's situation on its platform. It's important to know what information is reliable and what's important to be shared across the platform. Just like any other platform, there can be misinformation about the war so knowing what's real and what's fake can heavily influence people's perspective on the war.

(Eric Luna)

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As the crisis in Ukraine continues, millions are turning to TikTok for information on what's happening on the ground. TikTok users in Ukraine regularly post videos to the social media platform, offering first-hand accounts of the Russian invasion. The platform has become a primary outlet for spreading information, causing some to refer to the conflict as TikTok's first war. And that has some worried about the spread of misinformation.

An investigation by VICE News revealed a coordinated campaign by Russia to pay TikTok influencers to push pro-Kremlin narratives about the war. And the Biden Administration reportedly briefed the platform's creators on national security earlier this week, prompting Saturday Night Live to create a sketch on what a White House meeting with TikTok influencers might actually look like.

Casey Fiesler is an assistant professor of information science in the College of Media, Communication and Information. Fiesler, who studies technology ethics, internet law and policy and online communities, spoke about the role TikTok is playing in the Ukraine crisis.

Why are young people staying informed on the Ukraine war through TikTok? What does it offer that traditional news outlets don't?

Pew surveys in 2021 revealed that 86% of Americans consume news on digital devices (contrasted to television, radio and print) and nearly half get news from social media "often" or "sometimes." Therefore, even people who largely consume news from traditional outlets often get there by way of social media-a retweet, or an article shared by a friend on Facebook, often with additional commentary. And whether we intend to or not, we get news where we are. So given the huge number of young people who are scrolling through TikTok rather than watching CNN, it is unsurprising that is a major way they get their news.

Is TikTok an accurate source for information on the war?

As with any other social media platform, some news on TikTok is accurately and transparently sourced, and some is complete misinformation. However, TikTok is a lot newer to this fight than Facebook and Twitter. A huge challenge right now is being extra careful that we don't contribute to the spread of disinformation. Regardless of the platform, it is incredibly important we consider the credibility of sources and information we choose to believe and share.

Why would President Biden seek help from TikTok influencers on Ukraine war efforts? What does this say about social media's role in politics?

The SNL skit provides an amusing image of what it might be like for President Biden to ask TikTok influencers' advice about how the U.S. should respond to the invasion in Ukraine. But the actual White House event basically sounds like any other press briefing, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki providing information and answering questions.

One of my favorite TikTok creators, V Spehar, asked for more details about the most recent aid package. Though many people perceive the majority of TikTok content to be teenagers dancing to trending songs, Spehar's platform, like my own, is devoted to news and educational content.

White House officials said several times that their goal was to make sure these TikTok creators had accurate information to share. Though some critics have made this comparison: There is a distinction between a White House briefing-for which no one was paid or explicitly told what to share-and Russia paying TikTok influencers to post pro-Kremlin narratives. That said, this was certainly an effective way to get out specific information beyond traditional press circles.

Vladimir Putin banned Instagram in the country, cutting off 80 million users on March 13. Why? Is TikTok next?

Russian officials have cited discrimination against Russian media as the reasoning behind an initial ban on Facebook and now Instagram; the move might also be related to Meta's new exceptions to their content policies to allow users in Ukraine to post content that calls for violence against Russian invaders.

Meanwhile, TikTok, stating they do not want to put their Russian users at risk, has already blocked all non-Russian content in Russia after the country criminalized spreading "fake news" about the invasion of Ukraine. At least one Russian influencer has already been threatened under this new law that carries with it the possibility of 15 years in prison.

Some are calling this the first social media war, and as we have been discussing at length in my online communities class this semester, there is no question the complexities of the current online media information ecosystem have created something we haven't seen before.

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Millions are turning to TikTok for the latest on Ukraine, but can the platform be trusted?

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As the crisis in Ukraine continues, TikTok has become a primary outlet for spreading information, causing some to refer to the conflict as TikTok's first war. Casey Fiesler, an assistant professor of information science, discusses the role TikTok is playing in the Ukraine crisis.

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Facebook also formally known as Meta has begun to change policies after the war of Ukraine began. Usual posts that otherwise would be taken down are now permitted. Also providing real time information and showing what was going on. Recently however Instagram has been banned in Russia however due to its involvement with Ukraine it was recognized by the president of Ukraine himself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/technology/ukraine-russia-facebook instagram.html
Santiago Menjivar

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American express cannot be used is banned in russia - Manuel Cruz

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American express cannot be used is banned in russia - Manuel Cruz

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America Express cannot be used in Russia. Because of this people in Russia are not able to use their money that they have in America Express in their daily life. They are forced to switch to a different bank.

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american express suspends operations in russia and belarus - cnn

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American Express suspends operations in Russia and Belarus

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American Express is the latest credit card company to announce it is ending its operations in Russia as its invasion into Ukraine escalates.

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H&M temporarily suspends all sales in Russia

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H&M temporarily suspends all sales in Russia

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(Luis Carrera)
Due to the invasion of Ukraine, H&M has declared that all sales in Russia would be temporarily halted.
The Swedish store declared in an official statement that it stands "with all the people who are suffering."

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How Telegram became the go to app in Ukraine

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How Telegram became the go to app in Ukraine

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The app has public and private feeds of photos and videos that can be set up by a person or organizations. These channels have become popular with journalists, aid workers, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy(who broadcasts on telegram). As telegram channels allow for live unfiltered war updates for both Ukrainian refugees and increasingly isolated Russians.
(Aliah Franco)

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Telegram is the app of choice in the war in Ukraine despite experts’ privacy concerns

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The messaging app Telegram has been heavily used by both sides in the war in Ukraine. But privacy experts say people using the service should be wary of the app’s level of security.

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Twitter has been used as a weapon in the war by the Ukraine minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Federov took action by tweeting big businesses and Elon Musk to support Ukraine. He specifically asked Elon Musk to help by supplying Ukraine with Starlink stations. Elon Musk has provided these Starlink stations which can be a backup for the government if communications are damaged. He has gotten many companies on his side as they boycott Russia. Mykhailo Fedorov has used Twitter to his advantage and as a weapon in the war as Twitter spreads his message. As he says himself, "Twitter has become an efficient tool that we are using to counter Russian military aggression. It's our smart and peaceful tool to destroy Russian economy."

Article: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60608222
(Andrea Hernandez Zambrano)

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Ukraine's S.O.S To Elon Musk; Ukraine Minister Tweets To Musk, Asks For Help | Breaking News

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New crowdsourcing campaign can help save Ukraine

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New crowdsourcing campaign can help save Ukraine

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On February 26, the Ukrainian Embassy in Prague in close cooperation with Czech officials launched a crowdsourcing campaign to secure finances for weapons purchases. The idea of collecting money from private Czech donors is a spontaneous response to Russian aggression and reflects cooperation between the Ukrainian Embassy, Czech officials, and the security community.
Another key factor that enhances the potential of this campaign is the Czech Republic's large defense industry.
At the same time, securing arms for Ukrainians from private warehouses appears both financially and legally difficult for the Czech government.
(Nadia Molina)

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The world is currently working hard to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. While sanctions are very welcome, Ukrainians desperately need weapons as they attempt to counter the largest European invasion since World War II.

The issue of arming Ukraine is no longer only a matter for governments as has traditionally been the case. The world is changing. On February 26, the Ukrainian Embassy in Prague in close cooperation with Czech officials launched a crowdsourcing campaign to secure finances for weapons purchases.

Thanks to this new format, anyone can now contribute directly to the acquisition of weapons for Ukraine. The model is not far from the fundraising initiatives that allow people to adopt an animal at a zoo. Those who wish to participate can club together to fund the purchase of a howitzer, an infantry fighting vehicle, or even a tank.

The idea of collecting money from private Czech donors is a spontaneous response to Russian aggression and reflects cooperation between the Ukrainian Embassy in Prague, Czech officials, and the security community. The Czech historical experience of Soviet invasion in 1968 also played a significant role. Nor is it a coincidence that on the very day the campaign was launched, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

Another key factor that enhances the potential of this campaign is the Czech Republic's large defense industry. This creates a more propitious climate for such a project than in other European countries. Czechs consider arms to be a traditional part of their industry and an important national export. In addition to a modern arms industry, state and private sector storage warehouses in the Czech Republic contain significant amounts of Soviet-era weaponry that Ukrainians know well.

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The steady flow of sophisticated arms delivered to Ukraine in recent months has already had a significant impact on the course of the war, enabling the Ukrainian military to inflict significant losses on the Russian invaders. However, Ukrainians will soon need resupplies of the ammunition and weapons they use the most.

The Czech Republic can play a key role in making this happen. The wider region's stores of Soviet-era arms are one of the important strategic assets that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe can offer to Ukraine.

The government in Prague has already reached deep into its reserves and on February 26 dispatched a cargo including 3,000 machine guns, 7,000 rifles, 30,000 pistols, and over a million rounds of ammunition worth USD 8.6 million to Ukraine. This was in addition to 4,000 artillery shells worth USD 1.7 million.

Following an emergency meeting on February 27, Prime Minister Fiala announced yet another donation of unspecified heavy weaponry with a value of about USD 18 million. Prague thus became one of the most active countries providing military material to Kyiv, totaling so far about USD 30 million. And more may be announced this week.

At the same time, securing arms for Ukrainians from private warehouses appears both financially and legally difficult for the Czech government. Hence the idea of crowdsourcing and direct Ukrainian purchase from defense companies. Czech officials are ready to issue export licenses and facilitate fast-track delivery so that weapons reach Ukraine before it is too late. The next two weeks may be critical.

Prague's crowdsourcing campaign is unique. There are several other fundraising efforts where the Ukrainian government and other institutions have opened accounts for donations, but those are either general campaigns or focusing on humanitarian aid and not weaponry.

In the first two days following the campaign launch, more than USD 15 million was collected. More importantly, money doesn't stay in the account of the Ukrainian Embassy in Prague. It was immediately sent to participating companies and the export of purchased arms is currently being processed.

The crowdsourcing campaign was initially intended for Czech citizens and companies. However, as Deputy Defense Minister Tomáš Kopečný noted, "it turned out to be global since its first hours with people around the world sending their contributions."

In response to this global demand, a US dollar account was added to the initial Czech Koruna account for donations. With available Czech weapons stocks valued at over USD 100 million, there may also be room for governments to join this initiative.

One of the advantages of this joint Ukrainian-Czech project is the wish list produced by Ukrainians based on what is available in Czech warehouses. This can be shared with other governments and big private donors. Some items on the Ukrainian shopping list may go beyond what is now ready to be dispatched from the Czech Republic, thus the project can expand to a few other Central and European countries where the requested material could be found.

US funds could potentially be secured through an appropriate amendment to the "Defending Ukraine Sovereignty Act" currently discussed in the Senate. This will certainly require some political leverage, but it is worthy of such an investment. Ukraine is not only fighting for itself but also for the entire democratic world. And here we have a tool that can genuinely help.
Petr Tůma is a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe Center and a Czech career diplomat with expertise on Europe, the Middle East, and transatlantic relations.
Further reading

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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New crowdsourcing campaign can help save Ukraine

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The world is currently working hard to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. While sanctions are very welcome, Ukrainians desperately need weapons as they attempt to counter the largest European invasion since World War II. The issue of arming Ukraine is no longer only a matter for governments as has traditionally been the case.