‘Ireland acting as European HQ for Russian propaganda’: Ukrainians protest at Meta and Google offices

Mariia Bocheva, Vlad Kravchenko, and Alex Pishcheiko from Ukraine and living in Dublin, take part in a protest outside Meta's head office in Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Ukrainians living in Ireland protested on Wednesday morning outside Meta and Google headquarters in Dublin, demanding the social media companies remove all Russian state-backed propaganda from their platforms.

Protestors called on the employees to consider their role in this crisis, carried signs and had a mobile billboard reading ‘Stop Putin’s Lies, Save Ukrainian Lives.’ They also handed over an open letter signed by 4,650 people on Tuesday.

Michael Baskin from the Ukrainians in Ireland group said Ireland was “acting as the European HQ for Russian propaganda.” 

“Putin’s lies and hate speech are designed to cause confusion, break the Ukrainian spirit and distract the world from his bombing of civilians.

“It will cost lives. It breaks my heart to think of these offices, just a few miles from my home, acting as the European HQ for Russian propaganda.

“These companies must put the Ukrainian people before profit and remove these accounts immediately,” Mr Baskin said.

While Ireland plays host as the European HQ for these social media companies, we can not let them transform Ireland into a home for hate.

“The Facebook offices in Ireland played a role in the negligence that facilitated the genocide of Rohingya Muslims, we can not allow the same offices to be complicit in attacks on the Ukrainian people,” he added.

Among those taking part in Wednesday’s protest was Ukrainian man Artem Nedostup, who is working in Dublin. Mr Nedostup said Russian state-controlled media “has been pushing disinformation and hate for years”. 

“From anti-vaccine conspiracies to hate and lies about different groups of people, undermining democracies all over the world.

“This may be too late but we need the social media and tech platforms to stop allowing them to share this propaganda, not just in Europe but across the world.” 

Layla Wade, a campaigner with Uplift, takes part in a protest outside Meta's head office in Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Meta said it was restricting access to Russian state media outlets as well as demoting content and labelling posts on Facebook globally. Similar measures are also planned for Instagram.

"Globally, we are demoting content from Facebook pages and Instagram accounts from Russian state-controlled media outlets, and we are making them harder to find across our platforms," according to Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta.

"We will continue to work closely with Governments on this issue," he added.

On Monday, Meta confirmed it was blocking access to RT and Sputnik — Russian state-controlled media outlets — across the EU.

This follows a move by the European Union to block access to these outlets across the bloc.

On Sunday, Meta said it was blocking access to several accounts in Ukraine — including those owned by some Russian state media organisations.

Siobhán O'Donoghue, executive director of campaign organisation Uplift, said the protests were also calling for the removal "of all Russian state-run and Kremlin-affiliated accounts everywhere in the world," across Facebook, Google, and TikTok. 

Following Wednesday's demonstration at Meta, protesters marched to the Dublin headquarters of Google, also calling on the tech giant to do more to tackle Russian disinformation.

Mike, an employee of Google said he fully supports free speech, however, “there is a difference between expressing opinions and spreading lies designed to spread hate and fear”. 

“I can see the awful results of disinformation and lies being shared online. My Russian friends are having a lot of difficulty getting their parents to understand that the information they are hearing from Russian state media channels is false.

We also need to find the right balance to make sure people in Russia have access to uncensored information.

Google said it was blocking YouTube channels connected to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe.

"We have also significantly limited recommendations globally for a number of Russian state-funded media outlets across our platforms," said Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google.

"In the past few days, YouTube has removed hundreds of channels and thousands of videos for violating its community guidelines, including a number of channels engaging in coordinated deceptive practices," he said.