8 ms·

Tech companies are making themselves active participants in conflicts involving powerful countries. Sooner or later, one of those countries is going to reach ou

Tech companies are making themselves active participants in conflicts involving powerful countries. Sooner or later, one of those countries is going to reach out and strike back in the physical world. It's just a matter of time. When it was little nudges in color revolutions in relatively weak countries, there was not much to worry about. Now? They're playing with fire and the tech folks doesn't seem they have a clue that this is the case. They feel very secure launching attacks against nation-states that have histories of creating very bad luck for unprotected outsiders who involve themselves in a conflict.

trhway 5y ago
>Tech companies are making themselves active participants in conflicts involving powerful countries. sometimes there are situations when one can't be neutral. A genocidal war like the one Russia is waging in Ukraine is such a situation. >Sooner or later, one of those countries is going to reach out and strike back in the physical world. Like Saudis did. So, it is a personal choice of everybody - whether to live by Russian/Saudi rules even when you're in US. Ukraine people chose to not live by Russian rules and are being genocided for that.
- HonestOp001 5y ago
  Genocidal war is not what is occurring. It is a land war where Putin wants to gain access to and control significant resources and a warm body of water in the southeast.
  - trhway 5y ago
    It is a genocidal war because Ukrainians are being killed and displaced for refusal to accept a Russian identity. Putin is pretty clear in denying to Ukrainians their identity and statehood. His plans for Ukrainians are like that of Hitler who wanted that land too for Slavic people - displacement and killing of resisting ones, conversion to "Russian" identity for the rest on those lands with limited statehood under control of the Great Russia.
    - theandrewbailey 5y ago
      A genocidal war is when someone kills an entire group of people over immutable characteristics. One country refusing to accept another country's power doesn't make a genocidal war. Your definition of genocide suggests that every war ever fought was genocidal, which is clearly not the case.
      - ModernMech 5y ago
        It's one thing to take over a territory from a controlling entity like a government or a king. It's another thing to take over a territory and claim that you're doing so because the ruling regime are Nazis, when they're not; and you're saving the people because they're Russians, when they're not. It's even quite another thing to embrace the ones who welcome your rewriting of history while murdering those who reject it. That's what elevates this to a genocide rather than just a territory grab.
    - _-david-_ 5y ago
      Russians are also dying. That means Ukraine is committing genocide on the Russians, right?
      - trhway 5y ago
        https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml Now show an official Ukraine policy documents declaring targeting Russians based on Russian national or ethnic identity. A pattern of such activity without official policy documents would do to. Though for example the fact that mostly Russians are killed in the invading tanks doesn't qualify because it is just happens that the tanks are manned mostly by Russians and those Russians are killed not for being Russians, they are killed for driving invading tanks. For the current genocide conducted by Russia in Ukraine Putin's editorial and speeches, including the speech declaring the war, declaring erasure of Ukrainian national and ethnic identity are such official policy documents.
    - 8note 5y ago
      Is it a Russian identity, or being a russian vassal that's required? Denial of sovereignty isn't genocide
  - colinmhayes 5y ago
    I would agree that this isn't genocide, but the russian forces are playing extremely loose with civilian casualties. It's clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukrainian culture/independent spirit which could be considered a form of genocide I guess.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - trhway 5y ago
      >the russian forces are playing extremely loose with civilian casualties. one of the main reason for the indiscriminate shelling and bombing of the cities that Russia conducts is displacement of Ukrainians into the West Ukraine and farther, i.e. ethnical cleansing. The much smaller population left will as a a result have a [scared] pro-Russian majority and will "democratically" vote for the government of Ukraine (or whatever part of Ukraine Russia wants to hold, and they would prefer it to include Kiev as that would make it "Ukraine") doing what Russia wants.
    - future-garten 5y ago
      Back then when Soviet Union troops were in Afghanistan, I believe, that western propaganda used the same words: independent spirit, culture, freedom, civilian casualties. However, when USA troops came to Afghanistan... Of course american troops were fighting terrorists. They did no harm to civilians, they came to spread freedom, boost independent spirit, and significantly contributed to Afghan culture.
      - yellowapple 5y ago
        Just because the US does a bad thing doesn't mean Russia is justified in doing it.
        8note 5y ago
        The US, being the hegemon, sets the standard on whats acceptable for interactions between countries
  - ModernMech 5y ago
    um... there's a huge subtext going on here that you are glossing over. Putin has said that the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet union. He has intoned that he wishes to restore the former glory of the Soviet Union in Russia. He is now currently displaying on state run media, images of tanks flying the soviet flag as they invade Ukraine. He has called into question the very nature of the Ukrainian state as a legitimate entity. He has called into question the very nature the Ukrainian people as a legitimate ethnic group, claiming they are in fact Russians. He is now conducting a war which encroaches on their national identity by invading its borders, and he is engaged in specifically targeting civilians, including hospitals and fleeing refugees. He is also engaged in a vast information war against Ukrainians, and if he's successful in taking over Ukraine that information war will come to them as well. This isn't merely about gaining access to a port, this is about erasing a people, its history, and its identity. I've gotta say, if this is not recognizable as genocidal war to you, can you please lay down a firm line that needs to be crossed before you apply that term? Because the way things are going if Putin doesn't cross it today, he will soon enough. Because what do you think happens if Putin takes over Ukraine? When you look at the images of the bombed hospitals, what do you think happens next, after the brutal dictator takes over the country filled with people whom he claims are Nazis?
    - 8note 5y ago
      For the Russian Empire, it was, the same as if the American states fell apart into smaller groups. Doubly so since the USSR manipulated borders to be bad like sykes-picot
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    I have other words for killing civilians.
  - nuccy 5y ago
    No, it's not about land, but about people. Russians use casette bombs in cities [1], try to circle and lock cities while continuing to bomb them [2]. Russian pilots know they bomb civil buildings following the orders and continue doing so [3]. Wikipedia defines genocide as: > Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people, usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group. We can call it as we want. History will judge. But we know the duck test: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. 1. https://www.reuters.com/world/un-rights-office-has-credible-reports-russian-cluster-bomb-use-ukraine-2022-03-11/ https://www.reuters.com/world/un-rights-office-has-credible-... 2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/11/hell-in-ukraines-mariupol-as-russians-attack-every-30-mins https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/11/hell-in-ukraines-ma... 3. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-pilot-shot-civilian-1687191 https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-pilot-shot-civ...
  - jdkee 5y ago
    Perhaps you should review the relevant standards on "genocide" before commenting. See https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
- nopsab 5y ago
- throwawayacc2 5y ago
  I wish I had enough karma to downvote you. You are either extremely uninformed ( to the point where stupidity is actually a better explanation than ignorance) or, more likely, maliciously spreading misinformation. Let me remove any kind of doubt. Ukraine is being invaded by a dictator deserving of all condemnation. Putin has started an illegal war and this is bad. No part of his actions are justifiable. What is not happening in Ukraine however is a genocide. To claim that is wrong, unhelpful and stupid.
  - boringg 5y ago
    I agree with you completely. All this talk of genocide and nazism in Ukraine is devaluing the meaning of those words. Yes there is considerable suffering and it is a terrible conflict but, and maybe people don't use words literally anymore or don't care about history, to include either of those words is grossly inaccurate verging on absolute ignorance or troll.
    - trhway 5y ago
      >All this talk of genocide and nazism in Ukraine is devaluing the meaning of those words. I think what is extremely devaluing and disrespectful of the past anti-nazi fighters and genocide victims is to allow Nazism and genocide on our watch. > is grossly inaccurate verging on absolute ignorance or troll. whole country of Ukraine are ignorant trolls? In Ukraine they normally call it a Russian fascism - "russism" ['rashizm'] for short and thus "russist occupants/invaders". It is called the same in Baltic countries too. And if you don't see how the proclaimed by Putin "Great Russia" ideology is nazism when you just don't know what nazism is. >people don't use words literally anymore or don't care about history looks like you have no idea what you're talking about. My Ukrainian grandparents were under German occupation. From the other, Russian, side of the family - significant number of the members of extended family fought against German Nazi in WWII with some KIA/highly decorated/etc.
      - boringg 5y ago
        Nazism: Nazism is a form of fascism, with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It incorporates fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed. —- Where is the antisemitism, anti-communism, or eugenics - i don't see any of that which are CORE to nazism? Im sorry this situation is terrible in Ukraine but it is not genocide or nazism.
- jotm 5y ago
  It's not genocide, but if Russia wins there will undoubtedly be a lot of "cleaning". Their plans include arresting anyone who still resists, and who knows what will actually happen to the arrested. Judging by the Russian prisons where they rape political prisoners with dirty sticks... it could be pretty bad. Don't believe me, here's some proof: https://vot-tak.tv/novosti/04-10-2021-iznasilovaniya-v-koloniyah-na-kameru/ https://vot-tak.tv/novosti/04-10-2021-iznasilovaniya-v-kolon... Gulagu.net got 40GB of this shit.
- bckr 5y ago
  The UN definition of genocide requires acts of violence with the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such" (emphasis mine).[1] Putin and Russian have made it clear that they intend to destroy the very idea of Ukraine. For evidence of this, see[2], a book which has been used for the last 3 decades to indoctrinate individuals in the Russian government. The existence of this book, and the fact that its author, Aleksander Dugin, has Putin's ear (and has even been called "Putin's Brain"), is evidence of the intent behind the invasion of Ukraine. In the eyes of Russian leadership, Ukraine does not exist. To realize their goals, Russia does not need to kill all of the people of "the Ukraine" as they call it. Instead they must accomplish the erasure of the concept of Ukraine as a separate nation, people, and culture. In other words, they must "destroy... a national... group, as such". Therefore, according to the definition given by the UN of the term "genocide", the Russian war in Ukraine is genocidal. All arguments that I have seen to the contrary point to the lack of intention to kill every Ukrainian. As shown above, killing everyone in a group is not required to constitute genocide. I'll go one further. Here's the definition of "genocide" from Oxford: "The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group." I don't think this could be simpler. The Russian war in Ukraine is genocidal. [1] https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
- ComradePhil 5y ago
  > A genocidal war like the one Russia is waging in Ukraine is such a situation. There is genocidal war in Ukraine that has been going on for decades. Look up the Minsk agreements... or how the Roma people or any other minority groups have been treated in Ukraine: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/ukraine/report-ukraine/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/...
jotm 5y ago
I mean, what is the country going to do? At best they can launch a cyber attack (or a lot of them). Any physical action would immediately involve the host country - bombing the Facebook HQ for example could be considered a terrorist act or even a war declaration.
- ModernMech 5y ago
  Are there still Facebook employees or contractors in Russia? They could be arrested and sent to labor camps.
  - jotm 5y ago
    Oh good point. I thought they pulled out of Russia... if they didn't, they will now.
- tomjen3 5y ago
  Russia lunched an attack with chemical weapons on U.K. soil and nothing happened.
  - Etherlord87 5y ago
    I think what happens now can be partially explained as a consequence of bad deeds attributed to Russia in the past.
- bhuber 5y ago
  People who get on Putin's bad side have a history of ending up with things like polonium and nerve agents inside their bodies, even when living in western countries. Bombing facebook would likely be further than even Russia is willing to go, but I wouldn't put it past them to poison their head of PR or something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvine... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Skripal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Skripal
  - lucianbr 5y ago
justapassenger 5y ago
> Tech companies are making themselves active participants in conflicts involving powerful countries Same can be said about media companies, banks, car manufacturers, luxury brands, fast foods, etc.
- ajross 5y ago
  And... rightly so? I mean, we know who we want to win here. There's a good side and a bad side. Have we really gone so far down the rabbit hole of "media neutrality" that a unilateral military invasion needs to be protected as... a form of speech, I guess? No, that's wrong. Russia is wrong. Limiting Russia's ability to invade its neighbors isn't being "biased" in a discussion about different perspectives, it's doing the right thing. At some point, there's a line drawn at the limit to tolerance. And Russia literally rolled tanks over it.
  - yucky 5y ago
    [flagged]
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      Could you please stop spouting Russian propaganda at every step? Russia has a far bigger Neo Nazi problem then Ukraine, on top of that it isn't exactly the Ukranian Neo Nazi's that are currently invading another country to slaughter their citizens. Neo Nazi's are unfortunately all too common, in the context of Ukraine they are merely a very convenient excuse to invade another sovereign country.
      - yucky 5y ago
        Help me understand what I said that is Russian propaganda. I don't think anybody denies the Ukrainian Azov Battalion is clearly Neo-Nazi. Are you saying this is one of those things that is best left unsaid, since it is an uncomfortable truth? Is that what makes it propaganda in your mind? Because nobody denies the accuracy of it. It's especially odd that you call it Russian propaganda since in the same sentence I call out the Russians for invading a sovereign country.
archibaldJ 5y ago
Well this drives up demand for the body-guard & security industry. And then maybe the military industry.. Soon we’ll see Meta buying submarines to invest in its in-house defence department or something

trhway 5y ago

>Tech companies are making themselves active participants in conflicts involving powerful countries. sometimes there are situations when one can't be neutral. A genocidal war like the one Russia is waging in Ukraine is such a situation. >Sooner or later, one of those countries is going to reach out and strike back in the physical world. Like Saudis did. So, it is a personal choice of everybody - whether to live by Russian/Saudi rules even when you're in US. Ukraine people chose to not live by Russian rules and are being genocided for that.

HonestOp001 5y ago
Genocidal war is not what is occurring. It is a land war where Putin wants to gain access to and control significant resources and a warm body of water in the southeast.
- trhway 5y ago
  It is a genocidal war because Ukrainians are being killed and displaced for refusal to accept a Russian identity. Putin is pretty clear in denying to Ukrainians their identity and statehood. His plans for Ukrainians are like that of Hitler who wanted that land too for Slavic people - displacement and killing of resisting ones, conversion to "Russian" identity for the rest on those lands with limited statehood under control of the Great Russia.
  - theandrewbailey 5y ago
    A genocidal war is when someone kills an entire group of people over immutable characteristics. One country refusing to accept another country's power doesn't make a genocidal war. Your definition of genocide suggests that every war ever fought was genocidal, which is clearly not the case.
    - ModernMech 5y ago
      It's one thing to take over a territory from a controlling entity like a government or a king. It's another thing to take over a territory and claim that you're doing so because the ruling regime are Nazis, when they're not; and you're saving the people because they're Russians, when they're not. It's even quite another thing to embrace the ones who welcome your rewriting of history while murdering those who reject it. That's what elevates this to a genocide rather than just a territory grab.
  - _-david-_ 5y ago
    Russians are also dying. That means Ukraine is committing genocide on the Russians, right?
    - trhway 5y ago
      https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml Now show an official Ukraine policy documents declaring targeting Russians based on Russian national or ethnic identity. A pattern of such activity without official policy documents would do to. Though for example the fact that mostly Russians are killed in the invading tanks doesn't qualify because it is just happens that the tanks are manned mostly by Russians and those Russians are killed not for being Russians, they are killed for driving invading tanks. For the current genocide conducted by Russia in Ukraine Putin's editorial and speeches, including the speech declaring the war, declaring erasure of Ukrainian national and ethnic identity are such official policy documents.
  - 8note 5y ago
    Is it a Russian identity, or being a russian vassal that's required? Denial of sovereignty isn't genocide
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  I would agree that this isn't genocide, but the russian forces are playing extremely loose with civilian casualties. It's clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukrainian culture/independent spirit which could be considered a form of genocide I guess.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - trhway 5y ago
    >the russian forces are playing extremely loose with civilian casualties. one of the main reason for the indiscriminate shelling and bombing of the cities that Russia conducts is displacement of Ukrainians into the West Ukraine and farther, i.e. ethnical cleansing. The much smaller population left will as a a result have a [scared] pro-Russian majority and will "democratically" vote for the government of Ukraine (or whatever part of Ukraine Russia wants to hold, and they would prefer it to include Kiev as that would make it "Ukraine") doing what Russia wants.
  - future-garten 5y ago
    Back then when Soviet Union troops were in Afghanistan, I believe, that western propaganda used the same words: independent spirit, culture, freedom, civilian casualties. However, when USA troops came to Afghanistan... Of course american troops were fighting terrorists. They did no harm to civilians, they came to spread freedom, boost independent spirit, and significantly contributed to Afghan culture.
    - yellowapple 5y ago
      Just because the US does a bad thing doesn't mean Russia is justified in doing it.
      - 8note 5y ago
        The US, being the hegemon, sets the standard on whats acceptable for interactions between countries
- ModernMech 5y ago
  um... there's a huge subtext going on here that you are glossing over. Putin has said that the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the fall of the Soviet union. He has intoned that he wishes to restore the former glory of the Soviet Union in Russia. He is now currently displaying on state run media, images of tanks flying the soviet flag as they invade Ukraine. He has called into question the very nature of the Ukrainian state as a legitimate entity. He has called into question the very nature the Ukrainian people as a legitimate ethnic group, claiming they are in fact Russians. He is now conducting a war which encroaches on their national identity by invading its borders, and he is engaged in specifically targeting civilians, including hospitals and fleeing refugees. He is also engaged in a vast information war against Ukrainians, and if he's successful in taking over Ukraine that information war will come to them as well. This isn't merely about gaining access to a port, this is about erasing a people, its history, and its identity. I've gotta say, if this is not recognizable as genocidal war to you, can you please lay down a firm line that needs to be crossed before you apply that term? Because the way things are going if Putin doesn't cross it today, he will soon enough. Because what do you think happens if Putin takes over Ukraine? When you look at the images of the bombed hospitals, what do you think happens next, after the brutal dictator takes over the country filled with people whom he claims are Nazis?
  - 8note 5y ago
    For the Russian Empire, it was, the same as if the American states fell apart into smaller groups. Doubly so since the USSR manipulated borders to be bad like sykes-picot
- pjmlp 5y ago
  I have other words for killing civilians.
- nuccy 5y ago
  No, it's not about land, but about people. Russians use casette bombs in cities [1], try to circle and lock cities while continuing to bomb them [2]. Russian pilots know they bomb civil buildings following the orders and continue doing so [3]. Wikipedia defines genocide as: > Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people, usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group. We can call it as we want. History will judge. But we know the duck test: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. 1. https://www.reuters.com/world/un-rights-office-has-credible-reports-russian-cluster-bomb-use-ukraine-2022-03-11/ https://www.reuters.com/world/un-rights-office-has-credible-... 2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/11/hell-in-ukraines-mariupol-as-russians-attack-every-30-mins https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/11/hell-in-ukraines-ma... 3. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-pilot-shot-civilian-1687191 https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-pilot-shot-civ...
- jdkee 5y ago
  Perhaps you should review the relevant standards on "genocide" before commenting. See https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
nopsab 5y ago
throwawayacc2 5y ago
I wish I had enough karma to downvote you. You are either extremely uninformed ( to the point where stupidity is actually a better explanation than ignorance) or, more likely, maliciously spreading misinformation. Let me remove any kind of doubt. Ukraine is being invaded by a dictator deserving of all condemnation. Putin has started an illegal war and this is bad. No part of his actions are justifiable. What is not happening in Ukraine however is a genocide. To claim that is wrong, unhelpful and stupid.
- boringg 5y ago
  I agree with you completely. All this talk of genocide and nazism in Ukraine is devaluing the meaning of those words. Yes there is considerable suffering and it is a terrible conflict but, and maybe people don't use words literally anymore or don't care about history, to include either of those words is grossly inaccurate verging on absolute ignorance or troll.
  - trhway 5y ago
    >All this talk of genocide and nazism in Ukraine is devaluing the meaning of those words. I think what is extremely devaluing and disrespectful of the past anti-nazi fighters and genocide victims is to allow Nazism and genocide on our watch. > is grossly inaccurate verging on absolute ignorance or troll. whole country of Ukraine are ignorant trolls? In Ukraine they normally call it a Russian fascism - "russism" ['rashizm'] for short and thus "russist occupants/invaders". It is called the same in Baltic countries too. And if you don't see how the proclaimed by Putin "Great Russia" ideology is nazism when you just don't know what nazism is. >people don't use words literally anymore or don't care about history looks like you have no idea what you're talking about. My Ukrainian grandparents were under German occupation. From the other, Russian, side of the family - significant number of the members of extended family fought against German Nazi in WWII with some KIA/highly decorated/etc.
    - boringg 5y ago
      Nazism: Nazism is a form of fascism, with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It incorporates fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed. —- Where is the antisemitism, anti-communism, or eugenics - i don't see any of that which are CORE to nazism? Im sorry this situation is terrible in Ukraine but it is not genocide or nazism.
jotm 5y ago
It's not genocide, but if Russia wins there will undoubtedly be a lot of "cleaning". Their plans include arresting anyone who still resists, and who knows what will actually happen to the arrested. Judging by the Russian prisons where they rape political prisoners with dirty sticks... it could be pretty bad. Don't believe me, here's some proof: https://vot-tak.tv/novosti/04-10-2021-iznasilovaniya-v-koloniyah-na-kameru/ https://vot-tak.tv/novosti/04-10-2021-iznasilovaniya-v-kolon... Gulagu.net got 40GB of this shit.
bckr 5y ago
The UN definition of genocide requires acts of violence with the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such" (emphasis mine).[1] Putin and Russian have made it clear that they intend to destroy the very idea of Ukraine. For evidence of this, see[2], a book which has been used for the last 3 decades to indoctrinate individuals in the Russian government. The existence of this book, and the fact that its author, Aleksander Dugin, has Putin's ear (and has even been called "Putin's Brain"), is evidence of the intent behind the invasion of Ukraine. In the eyes of Russian leadership, Ukraine does not exist. To realize their goals, Russia does not need to kill all of the people of "the Ukraine" as they call it. Instead they must accomplish the erasure of the concept of Ukraine as a separate nation, people, and culture. In other words, they must "destroy... a national... group, as such". Therefore, according to the definition given by the UN of the term "genocide", the Russian war in Ukraine is genocidal. All arguments that I have seen to the contrary point to the lack of intention to kill every Ukrainian. As shown above, killing everyone in a group is not required to constitute genocide. I'll go one further. Here's the definition of "genocide" from Oxford: "The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group." I don't think this could be simpler. The Russian war in Ukraine is genocidal. [1] https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
ComradePhil 5y ago
> A genocidal war like the one Russia is waging in Ukraine is such a situation. There is genocidal war in Ukraine that has been going on for decades. Look up the Minsk agreements... or how the Roma people or any other minority groups have been treated in Ukraine: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/ukraine/report-ukraine/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/...

jotm 5y ago

I mean, what is the country going to do? At best they can launch a cyber attack (or a lot of them). Any physical action would immediately involve the host country - bombing the Facebook HQ for example could be considered a terrorist act or even a war declaration.

ModernMech 5y ago
Are there still Facebook employees or contractors in Russia? They could be arrested and sent to labor camps.
- jotm 5y ago
  Oh good point. I thought they pulled out of Russia... if they didn't, they will now.
tomjen3 5y ago
Russia lunched an attack with chemical weapons on U.K. soil and nothing happened.
- Etherlord87 5y ago
  I think what happens now can be partially explained as a consequence of bad deeds attributed to Russia in the past.
bhuber 5y ago
People who get on Putin's bad side have a history of ending up with things like polonium and nerve agents inside their bodies, even when living in western countries. Bombing facebook would likely be further than even Russia is willing to go, but I wouldn't put it past them to poison their head of PR or something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvine... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Skripal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Skripal
- lucianbr 5y ago

justapassenger 5y ago

> Tech companies are making themselves active participants in conflicts involving powerful countries Same can be said about media companies, banks, car manufacturers, luxury brands, fast foods, etc.

ajross 5y ago
And... rightly so? I mean, we know who we want to win here. There's a good side and a bad side. Have we really gone so far down the rabbit hole of "media neutrality" that a unilateral military invasion needs to be protected as... a form of speech, I guess? No, that's wrong. Russia is wrong. Limiting Russia's ability to invade its neighbors isn't being "biased" in a discussion about different perspectives, it's doing the right thing. At some point, there's a line drawn at the limit to tolerance. And Russia literally rolled tanks over it.
- yucky 5y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Could you please stop spouting Russian propaganda at every step? Russia has a far bigger Neo Nazi problem then Ukraine, on top of that it isn't exactly the Ukranian Neo Nazi's that are currently invading another country to slaughter their citizens. Neo Nazi's are unfortunately all too common, in the context of Ukraine they are merely a very convenient excuse to invade another sovereign country.
    - yucky 5y ago
      Help me understand what I said that is Russian propaganda. I don't think anybody denies the Ukrainian Azov Battalion is clearly Neo-Nazi. Are you saying this is one of those things that is best left unsaid, since it is an uncomfortable truth? Is that what makes it propaganda in your mind? Because nobody denies the accuracy of it. It's especially odd that you call it Russian propaganda since in the same sentence I call out the Russians for invading a sovereign country.

archibaldJ 5y ago

Well this drives up demand for the body-guard & security industry. And then maybe the military industry.. Soon we’ll see Meta buying submarines to invest in its in-house defence department or something