Tech companies are aiding Ukrainians, blocking Russian state-run media and monitoring for cyberattacks after Moscow invaded its neighbor.
The industry is more actively involved than corporations have been in past military conflicts.
All three have placed restrictions on Russian state-run media’saccess to ad platformsand continue to fact-check posts deemed false.
Microsoft and Google have limited downloads of Russian state-run media services from their app stores.
Separately, Microsoft has worked with US and Ukrainian government officials to warn of hacking threats.
Now businesses are actors in the conflict.
“That’s very different.”
Big Tech isn’t alone in taking action to support Ukraine and strike back at Russia.
BP and Shell said they wouldcut ties with two gas companiescontrolled by the Russian government, Rosneft and Gazprom.
A Norwegian asset management firm said it woulddivest from Russian businesses.
Even the public media union that produces Eurovisionbanned Russia from its singing contestthis year.
Not every call for help has found support from the tech sector.
Still, tech companies are stepping up in ways unseen in the past.
On Thursday, Microsoft noticed signs of an attack aimed at Ukrainian digital infrastructure.
Microsoft has also limited access to RT and other Russian state-run media from its MSN start page.
It also pushed results from the news sites down in search results on Bing.
Tech companies have long struggled to respond to misinformation and disinformation during elections and protests.
Tech companies host state-run media around the world, making their decisions to boost or deemphasize content crucial.
The decisions can make relationships among the companies and the countries in which they operate testy.
But the companies may have no choice but to take action.
Meta did just that on Monday.
