Almost two-thirds of tech workers support Russian boycott
Tech professionals in the US and Europe are taking personal action to support Ukraine, says poll
Almost two thirds of tech professionals say that their companies should stop doing business in Russia.
Private technology industry social network Blind conducted the poll in conjunction with IEEE. The responses, which came from 8,787 tech professionals across its member base, showed that 64% of respondents across the US and Europe supported a ban on Russian sales following its attack on Ukraine. Support for a Russia boycott was similar in the US and Europe, with the latter showing 63% support.
Support for a ban on Russian sales was stronger in some companies than others. ServiceNow topped the list, with 93% of employees supporting a halt in Russian business. Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify came in second at 89%, then came experience management company Qualtrics at 81%.
Some workforces were less supportive. Just 39% of Spotify employees (restricted to its European operations) supported stopping business in Russia, even though the company closed its Russian office at the beginning of March in response to the Ukraine attack. At 43%, workers at TikTok operator ByteDance were among the least supportive of a Russian ban. ByteDance owner Douyin shut down 3,500 accounts in China at the end of February to quash provocative posts.
At Meta, which Russia has banned and labeled an extremist operation, a relatively low 47% of employees support pulling out of Russia.
Tech professionals are also taking personal action to support Ukraine. This ranged from donating by booking Ukrainian Airbnbs, cooking for refugees, or simply flying the Ukrainian flag. Three of the respondents said that they had been involved in cyber operations or hacking in support of Ukraine.
In Europe, 56% of tech workers were taking personal action compared to 36% in the US. Workers at Unity Technologies (76%), Shopify (67%) and Databricks (64%) were the most willing to get personally involved.
Several tech companies have already stopped sales in Russia, including Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, SAP, AMD, Intel, and TSMC. Big tech companies have also been helping to counter Russian cyber attacks against Ukraine.
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