For the past decade, the biggest digital companies have felt more like quasi-states than typical corporations: transnational empires whose decisions have increasingly had geopolitical ramifications, much to the chagrin of the country states in which they operate.
During the emergence of former President Trump and other authoritarians throughout the world, the world’s attention was rightfully focused on the worst parts of this system. Companies acquired a tremendous civic obligation as they grew, which they were hesitant to accept. The platforms were driven largely by profit and growth, and many were set up in such a way that their executives were unaccountable even to their own boards of directors. Meanwhile, opponents — as well as domestic politicians led by Trump — have used platforms to promote misinformation and create discord in the United States and overseas.
From 2016 through 2021, it was only logical for pro-democracy forces to believe that social media could only harm the planet. Algorithms designed to discover and promote the most enraged and provocative sentiments will polarize people over time, paving the way for strongmen to assume control of their country. Authoritarians might easily rule through disinformation and incitement to violence if content moderation was weak and mostly outsourced. In democracy’s doom spiral, social networks appeared to play a major role.
Perhaps they will still do so. However, when the horrible invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s Russia began on Thursday, the extent to which social media has been exploited in efforts to protect democracy has been startling.
Russia could have been anticipated to succeed at information warfare after being largely blamed for Trump’s election in 2016 and poised to launch the largest conflict of the social network era. Instead, it has gone horribly wrong for them, as has the rest of the battle. Ukraine has excelled at using social media, and while this may not be enough to defeat Russia’s stronger military, it does confound our understanding of big tech and democracy.
Let’s chat about it today.
Begin with the bigger picture. Before the war ever started, the US played a key role in undermining Putin’s credibility. The US intelligence community anticipated an invasion, and the Biden administration made that knowledge public, effectively removing Putin’s capacity to mount a surprise strike as well as any attempts to construct a bogus pretext for doing so.
Those actions were insufficient to stop the invasion. They did, however, establish a formidable trans-Atlantic alliance of democratic countries, forming a more united front against tyranny than the world has seen in decades, and reshaping the global order in a matter of days. After decades of pacifism, Germany stunned the world by announcing that it would increase defense expenditure; notoriously neutral Switzerland announced that it would join the rest of the free world in imposing economic penalties on Russia; and the European Union is sending jets to Ukraine.
These activities have had a significant cumulative impact at a time when faith in institutions is at an all-time low. A shared enemy is perhaps the most depolarizing force on the planet, and Russia’s homicidal and unpredictable tyrant has provided us with one.
All of this, I believe, is crucial to comprehending the movements platforms have made (or refused to make) in recent days, as well as how the war has been received on those platforms. It’s unusual to see an event of such global significance where the forces of good and evil are so starkly separated. Everything we’ve seen so far on tech platforms is a result of it.
So, what exactly did we see?
One, regular videos released on social media by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose choice to remain in the capital city of Kyiv while it is being bombarded by Russians has rallied the world to his cause, have electrified observers. Zelensky’s place as a global folk hero is secure, grim-faced but resolute, shooting on a cell phone selfie cam. He has inspired huge popular support for Ukraine, which has translated into aid from other nations across the world, by valiantly defying a massive army in the face of certain death and directly addressing the world via social media.
“Mr. Zelensky’s actions and the tough resistance efforts from ordinary Ukrainian men and women… have also had an important impact on European opinion, European officials say, making it easier for their leaders to be bolder and more freely accept refugees coming their way from Ukraine,” according to The New York Times.
Second, social media has made this battle feel like something that ordinary people all over the world can get involved in.
People donated $9.9 million in two days after the government of Ukraine’s (amazing, in every sense of the word) Twitter account asked for cryptocurrency donations. (It’s currently worth more than $20 million.) 175,000 people joined the Telegram group after Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation announced the formation of a volunteer “IT army” for cyber defense and attacks. They’ve carried out distributed denial-of-service attacks on over 25 Russian websites since then, including banks and government websites.
All of the viral stories about Ukrainians resisting occupation have fueled this enthusiasm, including the Ukrainian sailor who tried to sink his Russian oligarch boss’s yacht; the Ukrainian company that hacked Russian electric vehicle chargers to stop them from working (and display “PUTIN IS A DICKHEAD”); and the Ukrainian soldiers caught on video telling an advancing Russian warship to “go fuck yourself.” (They appear to have escaped the assault.)
Platforms can also participate. On Monday, Microsoft said it collaborated with the Ukrainian government over the weekend to thwart a series of cyberattacks on the eve of the invasion. Small-scale propaganda activities linked to Russia and Belarus were removed from Facebook and Twitter. The Russian state media station RT was (eventually) demonetized by YouTube, and access to it was limited within Ukraine.
This resistance was not sparked by social media. However, it swiftly and massively spread these tales, overriding what observers say has been a stunningly ineffective Russian communications effort. And sympathy for the resistance rises with each viral TikTok about the situation – here’s one in which Ukrainians show you how to drive abandoned Russian military vehicles.
All of this has provided some solace during a difficult period. However, there is a danger of exaggerating the role of the internet and social media in bolstering the Ukrainian opposition thus far — or underestimating Russia’s potential to retaliate.
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s efforts have proven inspiring thus far. However, we are only a few days into the operation, and as this lengthy thread from a Russian military analyst indicates, the majority of the country’s significant armament is still on standby. A Russian takeover of the country remains the most likely scenario. (However, as Yuval Noah Harari writes here, Putin may find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to govern even then.)
And there’s no clear road ahead on the platform front. Tech businesses, for their part, have mostly carried out the requests of democratic governments. On Monday, Meta’s Nick Clegg declared that the firm, like the European Union, would ban access to Russian official media networks RT and Sputnik in the European Union. (On Monday, TikTok also followed suit.) While Twitter did not outright prohibit the networks, it did put a state media label to any links shared on the site.
These measures are being actively opposed by Russia. Twitter was disabled, and Facebook was sluggish. It aimed to prohibit TikTok users from posting any footage of military operations. It protested the demonetization of RT and sent a letter to Google.
These attempts are being fiercely resisted by Russia. It slowed Facebook and disabled Twitter. It aimed to prohibit any film of military action from being shared on TikTok. It protested the demonetization of RT and Sputnik by writing to Google.
These changes are particularly regrettable for Russian citizens, who will have less access to independent media and organizational tools provided by social media. However, Russia has other tools at its disposal, and I am concerned that it will use them in a very negative way.
In September, I wrote about Apple and Google’s decision to cooperate with a Russian injunction and delete an app aimed to assist voters unite around anti-Putin candidates from their app stores. They didn’t have much of a choice if they wanted to stay in business. Part of a wave of so-called “hostage-taking laws” around the world, a recent piece of Russian legislation known as the “landing law” mandates some tech businesses to establish local offices with designated representatives who can be directly intimidated into doing the government’s bidding. For failing to remove the voting software last year, Google employees were reportedly threatened with jail or worse.
The platforms were given until February 28th to comply with the law, and they were in various levels of compliance when the war started. In The New York Times, Adam Satariano writes:
Russian officials informed Google, Meta, Apple, Twitter, TikTok, and other companies last week that they only had until the end of the month to comply with a new rule requiring them to establish legal businesses in the country. According to legal experts and civil society organizations, the so-called landing law renders corporations and their employees more subject to Russia’s legal system and government censorship demands. […]
According to Roskomnadzor, the Russian internet regulator, Apple, TikTok, and Spotify have complied with the landing rule, and Google has taken efforts to do so as well. Twitch and Telegram, on the other hand, have not. Some parts of the regulation have been followed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and Twitter, but others have not.
What happens next will be watched closely. Many of these sites have staff in Russia, who may face physical danger if the conflict escalates.
Platforms without full-time staff in Russia may find it simpler to withstand Russia’s draconian expectations. Netflix announced Monday that it will refuse to carry Russian news and entertainment channels (together with all the governmental propaganda it involves) as part of a new restriction. It has no employees in Russia, for example. (Neither does Twitter, for that matter.)
The biggest platforms, on the other hand, do not have that luxury, and the ramifications might be disastrous. Local employees remain a chillingly visible point of leverage, even with the globe united against Russia and platforms working in concert with the global order to prevent Russia’s information warfare.
The power of platforms in amplifying democratic voices has been shown by Putin’s war. After all, if they weren’t so effective, Russia wouldn’t be spending so much time attempting to stop them. After a half-decade of appearing to have succeeded in bending platforms to their will, the past few days may have permanently altered our perception of Russia’s ability to shape global narratives.
Controlling the story, however, is not the same as controlling the geography. If Russia succeeds in annexing Ukraine, the war will have demonstrated the limits of what internet activism can accomplish in the face of a global superpower. And, if other democracies, including our own, succumb to fascism, I have no doubt that platforms will be forced to play a key supporting role.
Meanwhile, millions of people are suffering unnecessarily. Billions are concerned about the consequences of further escalation for their own families. And, despite Putin’s gift of moral clarity, platforms still face challenging challenges about how to handle a globe at war, beginning with their own employees in Russia.
There has never been a time when the stakes have been higher. For a few days, the internet has served as a powerful force multiplier for Ukraine and its democratic supporters. However, the worst of this war is almost certainly yet to come. And when it does, it may have ramifications that no single internet platform can handle.
