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