Creative Tech Giants Based In Ukraine Mobilize Their Services To Defend Nation
Photo 210088477 © Luca Lorenzelli | Dreamstime.com
In a time of need, Ukrainian companies with global reach are transforming their popular tools into beacons of peace.
Familiar tech names like Ubisoft are tapping into their resources to raise awareness about the grievous conditions in their home following Russian invasion, creating social media-ready filters of solidarity and sharing free images that the public can use at protests.
Depositphotos
Stock image agency Depositphotos, which is based in Kyiv, has created two collections of imagery to provide an honest peer into the predicament in Ukraine, as well as acknowledge the outpour of support from anti-war campaigns across the world, Forbes reports.
Photo of a protest in London, licensed for free on Depositphotos. Image via Alexander Smutko / Depositphotos
The royalty-free platform of millions of resources has made the photos and videos in these libraries—entitled The truth about Russia’s war in Ukraine and International rallies in support of Ukraine—free to download and use to spread the word around and dispel Russian propaganda proliferated by state-owned media. To encourage sharing, links to these albums were first emailed to users in a newsletter.
An illustration f0r awareness, licensed for free on Depositphotos. Image via FlyOfSwallow / Depositphotos
Depositphotos’ vice president Vadim Nekhai told Forbes that censorship has restricted people in Russia from seeing the truth, so “the origin of this idea is to send a message to all of the Russian people what’s really happening.”
“Even if a small percentage of our clients or users will actually listen, it will help,” Nekhai elaborated.
Reface app
Russia has invaded Ukraine.
— Reface (@reface_app) February 24, 2022
Today at 5 am all our team woke up from the series of explosions. Russia started a large-scale invasion, attacking multiple cities across Ukraine. It’s nothing but war. pic.twitter.com/YfzJPJt4GN
Reface—a popular face-swapping app operating in Kyiv with 200 million global users including Elon Musk, Dua Lipa, and Snoop Dogg—is taking action by sending out push notifications, reading “Russia has invaded Ukraine,” to two million users. Upon tapping on the alerts, users will be led to a slideshow of the conflict in Ukraine, including imagery of buildings damaged by detonation, as well as directed to information about the invasion.
Videos created in the Reface app will now also be watermarked with the Ukrainian flag in hopes to draw attention to the conflict.
For the sake of its nation, the face-swapping app is acutely sacrificing the name it took years to build. According to Forbes, its review section has been flooded with one-star reviews in response to the update. But CEO and founder Dima Shvets is powering through with the in-app rally.
“We are risking everything,” Shvets noted. “We’ve already got a lot of one-star reviews, but it’s such a small price to pay compared to our lives and freedom.”
Ubisoft
— Ubisoft (@Ubisoft) February 25, 2022
In a similar vein, gaming giant Ubisoft is looking within and safeguarding local talent. The company told The Loadout that it has found housing for its employees to seek refuge in neighboring countries, in addition to paying out advanced wages to all workers in Ukraine to financially support them through this difficult time.
Ubisoft, which was founded in Ukraine, has two homegrown studios. One is in Kyiv, while the other is located in the port city of Odesa.
“In light of the dramatic escalation, we are fully mobilized to continue to provide [our teams] with additional assistance. Their safety is our primary concern,” Ubisoft shared in a statement.
[via Forbes, TechCrunch, NME, images via various sources]
