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Ten tech giants cutting ties with Russia 

Ten tech giants cutting ties with Russia 
The Swedish audio streaming giant and media service provider has closed its Russian office indefinitely and removed all content from Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik, over what it called Moscow’s “unprovoked attack on Ukraine”.
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1. Spotify

The Swedish audio streaming giant and media service provider has closed its Russian office indefinitely and removed all content from Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik, over what it called Moscow’s “unprovoked attack on Ukraine”. Spotify said it has reviewed thousands of pieces of content since the start of the invasion, and restricted the discoverability of shows owned and operated by Russian state-affiliated media.

2. PayPal

The American online payments company shut down its services in Russia after it recently stopped accepting new users in Russia. The company had discontinued domestic services in Russia in mid-2020, but still allowed cross border transactions. The company is also suspending its international money transfer service Xoom in Russia. Mastercard and Visa have also halted operations there.

3. Electronic Arts 

The video game company has declared openly that it will no longer sell its games and content in Russia. Electronic Arts (EA), which owns the Fifa franchise, this includes games, add-on content, and virtual currency bundles, which will no longer be available in Russia including their updates. 

4. Apple

After restricting Apple Pay services in Russia, the tech giant has decided to suspend all its product sales in Russia. In Ukraine, the company also disabled both traffic and live incident features in its Apple Maps “as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens,” amid fears that Russia could target specific locations using the tools. 

5. Google

The American-based Alphabet-owned company has banned Russian state media outlets from running ads on its platforms, blocked mobile apps connected to media outlets RT and Sputnik from its Play store, removed the publishers from Google News, disabled Netflix and banned them from YouTube across Europe. Just like the Apple iOS, the company has disabled some live traffic and incident features from Google Maps in Ukraine. Its Search and Maps tools in the country now also point to United Nations resources for refugees and asylum seekers. In Russia, however, most of its services, such as Search, Maps and YouTube, remain available.

6. Meta

The American multinational technology conglomerate announced recently that all Facebook pages and Instagram accounts belonging to RT and Sputnik would no longer be accessible within the European Union. Russia’s national telecommunications regulator hit back by blocking access to Facebook in the country, in response to what it called “discrimination” against Russian state media.

7. Twitter

Twitter has also taken down the accounts of RT and Sputnik in Europe, in line with a European Union (EU) ban on the Kremlin-backed news outlets. These two Twitter accounts are now inaccessible across the bloc’s 27-member states. Instead, a message shows up stating, “account withheld”. The EU has accused both state-run media outlets of spreading harmful disinformation across social media.

8.TikTok

The Chinese-owned video app suspended new video uploads and livestreams in Russia, citing concerns over the country’s new law cracking down on the so-called “fake news”. Just like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the short-form video platform has also blocked access to RT and Sputnik in the European Union.

9. Oracle

The business software giant designs, manufactures, and sells both software and hardware products and offers services that complement them. Oracle recently tweeted that it had “already suspended all operations” in Russia after Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on the company to stop doing business in Russia “until the conflict is resolved”. 

10. Microsoft 

The Bill Gates-owned company is working together with governments in the UK, EU , and Americas, aiming to cease more aspects of the business following sanctions in Russia. Microsoft suspended all its operations in the world’s largest country by area and is no longer displaying any content from its state-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik. It also announced that it would de-rank their search results on Bing and would stop all advertising deals with them.

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