Snap Halts All Ads in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine

Snap Inc., Meta and Reddit provided updates Tuesday on measures they enacted in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Snap noted that it does not have an office in Russia and said it stopped all ads running in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, along with halting ad sales to Belarusian and Russian entities. The company added that it does not accept revenue from Russian state-owned entities. Snapchat will continue to be offered in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine due to its importance as a communications tool. The company is “vigilantly monitoring” its platform for misinformation or misuse and providing Snapchatters with accurate news coverage and information through its publisher partners on its Discover platform, where Russian state media has never been allowed to distribute content. Snap pledged more than $15 million in humanitarian aid to support organizations providing direct relief to the people of Ukraine, and it has been providing emergency assistance and helping team members in the country safely relocate. The company said in a blog post Tuesday, “Ukraine is the birthplace of Looksery, the company that laid the foundation for Snap’s augmented reality platform, and has been the home of more than 300 of Snap’s most creative and talented team members. Over many years working with our Ukrainian colleagues and friends, we have gotten to know the inventiveness, strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people.” Meta worked with Ukraine’s state emergency services to roll out a free service bot on messaging application WhatsApp, which will help connect Ukrainians with reliable and trustworthy information, as well as details about response procedures in case of emergency. Encrypted one-on-one chats on Instagram are now available to all adults in Russia and Ukraine, and notifications at the top of direct message inboxes will let people know they can choose to have an encrypted conversation. Meta said people have raised more than $15 million on Facebook and Instagram in the past five days to support humanitarian efforts, and over 8 million people have added the Ukrainian flag frame to their profile picture on Facebook. President of global affairs Nick Clegg said during a press call Tuesday to discuss Meta’s Community Standards Enforcement Report for the fourth quarter of 2021, “Throughout the past few days, we’ve seen glimpses of the people whose lives have been turned upside down by the conflict—the heartbreak of families separated, the anxiety of people huddled on subway platforms and the bravery and defiance of Ukrainians young and old defending their communities. And we've been able to catch these glimpses in large part because, especially in times of crisis, people turn to social media to make their voices heard, to protest, to organize and to share what’s happening with their communities and the wider world.” He added, “We’ve also seen how powerful a tool social media has been for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak directly to people around the world, including appealing to Russian people in their own language in an effort to stop the war. We think it’s important to make sure our services operate in Russia despite the Russian government’s attempts to throttle our services. Prominent Russian creators and influencers, activists and musicians are using Facebook and Instagram to access information and speak out against the invasion.” Reddit added the r/Russia and r/RussiaPolitics subreddits to its quarantine list, restricting them from appearing in search results and adding warning messages, including, “This community contains a high volume of information not supported by credible sources.” Redditors can still visit r/Russia and r/RussiaPolitics by clicking through the warning, but the message will stay atop the page. For context, Reddit placed subreddit r/The_Donald, devoted to former President Donald Trump, in quarantine in June 2019, before banning it altogether in June 2020.

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Snap Halts All Ads in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine

Reddit adds r/Russia, r/RussiaPolitics subreddits to quarantine list

David Cohen

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