Google said It’s helping those leaving Ukraine- war-affected regions. Google stated that Google.org and Google employees are donating $15 million for relief efforts in Ukraine. The company’s match campaign has got $5 million, and Company gets another $ 5 million from grants. The company is offering advertising credits for humanitarian and intergovernmental organisations helping war-affected people.
“We’ve launched an SOS alert on Search across Ukraine. When people search for refugee and evacuation information, they will see an alert pointing them to United Nations resources for refugees and asylum seekers. We’re working with expert organizations to source helpful humanitarian information as the situation unfolds,” Walker said.
“And after consulting with multiple sources on the ground, including local authorities, we’ve temporarily disabled some live Google Maps features in Ukraine, including the traffic layer and information about how busy places are, to help protect the safety of local communities and their citizens. We’ve also added information on refugee and migrant centers in neighboring countries.”
He said Google warned Ukrainians several times over the past year of security issues that they may face when using Gmail.
Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) says that threat actors have redirected their efforts towards people and organisations in Ukraine. Walter remarked that the GhostWriter threat group is targeting the Ukrainian government and military officials.
“We blocked these attempts and have not seen any compromise of Google accounts as a result of this campaign. We also automatically increased Google account security protections (including more frequent authentication challenges) for people in the region and will continue to do so as cyber threats evolve,” Walker said.
“Our Advanced Protection Program — which delivers Google’s highest level of security — is currently protecting the accounts of hundreds of high-risk users in Ukraine. And ‘Project Shield,’ a service providing free unlimited protection against Distributed Denial of Service attacks, is already protecting over 100 Ukrainian websites, including local news services.”
Google, along with Facebook and Apple, is contemplating taking action on Russia’s news outlet Russia Today and Sputnik.
YouTube channel linked with Russia Today and Sputnik were blocked in Europe from Tuesday. He observed that the company was not processing monetisation of Russian state-funded media across their platforms.
Globally, Google has restricted recommendations for Russian state-funded media outlets and taken down “hundreds of channels and thousands of videos for violating its Community Guidelines.”
Google is worried about its Ukrainian team and their families. He said Since January, Google has been working to “provide help, including physical security support, paid leave, assistance options and reimbursement for housing, travel and food for anyone forced to leave their homes.”
Google will also comply with any sanctions, according to Walker, who stated that Google Pay would become unavailable in certain countries as more individuals, regions and institutions like banks are sanctioned.
Most Google products will not be accessible in Russia, Walker said. including Search, Maps and YouTube.
Further, Meta stated that it has started hemming in the Russian content on its platform, including Instagram.
Apple is stopping sales in Russia; it stopped exports to the country and limited Apple Pay access there. Russia Today and Sputnik News have been removed from the App Store outside Russia, and Apple blocked both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine.
Twitter has also joined the tech giants in curbing their activities in Russia, and Twitter has blocked access to their accounts for Russians.
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