Ukraine Minister Asks U.S. Tech Companies For Help, And Ask Them To Also Pressure Russia

There is no denying that the tech sphere is dominated by the West.

It's safe to say that almost all countries around the world use products that originate from the U.S.. And among those countries include Ukraine.

In the war between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said that he has asked the CEOs of Google, YouTube, Meta, Apple and Netflix to block or limit their Russian services in an effort to elicit discontent among Russians and to put pressure on Moscow's leaders.

"I asked YouTube to block the Russian propaganda media, which call us Nazis and drug addicts, lie and promote war. Asked Meta to block Facebook and Instagram. I asked Netflix to block the service in Russia," Mykhailo Fedorov said in a statement on Facebook.

Fedorov who also serves as Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, sent letters to Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and also to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

He also asked Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, to stop supplying services and products to Russia and to block the Apple App Store, he said in a tweet.

According to the Minister, these actions will "motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression."

At this time, Meta, the company that is a rebranded Facebook, has some ongoing issues with Russia, in which the authorities in Moscow said that they had restricted local access to Facebook after the company took actions against the Facebook Pages of Kremlin-backed media outlets.

Russia is also angered when it realized Meta started blocking Russian state media from running ads on its platform across the world.

And as for Netflix, the U.S. streaming giant is facing the prospect of being forced to broadcast Kremlin propaganda.

Fedorov is also urging gaming companies like Microsoft and Sony to temporarily pull out of the Russian markets, and to also block Russian accounts.

"You are definitely aware of what is happening in Ukraine right now," Fedorov tweeted. "If you support human values, you should [leave] the Russian market."

The Minister has also sent letters to both SAP and Oracle.

And to ensure that Ukraine can continue having internet connection, Mykhailo Fedorov asked Elon Musk to provide Ukraine access to Starlink.

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, which provides satellite-based internet access. With more than a thousand of mass-produced small satellites orbiting in low Earth orbit (LEO) as of 2021, Starlink's constellation can deliver internet connection to any place on Earth.

As of February 2022, the beta internet service offering is available in 29 countries.

And in this Russian-Ukraine war, Fedorov asked Musk for assistance.

"Dear Elon Musk! While you are trying to colonize Mars, Russia is trying to colonize Ukraine! While your rockets are successfully landing from space, Russian rockets are attacking Ukrainian kindergartens and hospitals! We need support. I ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and access to satellite Internet as soon as possible," Fedorov said in a message on Telegram.

The 31-year-old Minister thanked Musk when the Starlink dishes arrived.

"You are most welcome," Musk responded.

Musk also said that Starlink has updated its software to "reduce peak power consumption, so Starlink can be powered from car cigarette lighter.

This in turn should allow mobile roaming and signal even on moving vehicles.

In response to Russia's attack and Fedorov plead, tech companies began to enforce their own approaches.

Apple for example, announced that it is pausing product sales in Russia. It has also limited access to its mobile payment service Apple Pay and restricted the availability of Russian state media apps. As for Google, the company has removed Russian state-funded media from its news-related features and the Google News search tool. It also paused Russian state media services’ ability to monetize through Google Ads.

Oracle has suspended all operations in Russia, while YouTube is pausing Russian state media channels to make money through ads. Twitter responded by pausing ads in Russia and Ukraine, and TikTok restricted access to Russian state-controlled media accounts.

Netflix responded by refusing to air Russian state TV channels, and both Intel and AMD have stopped selling chips to Russia.

Others include Dell Technologies, Snapchat, Electronic Arts, GoDaddy, Spotify, DuckDuckGo and more.

Since late February 2022, Russian troops have moved into Ukraine in a devastating and unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

Fighting has continued in intensify since then, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the country as refugees.

Read: Russia-Ukraine War On The Internet: Between Cyberattacks To Censorship, Encrypted Messages And More