Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
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Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#2> Here we may take a break to consider the fact that Russian is not only the language of one country, Russia. It is also the native language for millions of Ukrainians and Belarusians. Therefore it is far from obvious that a Russian-language podcast initiative should be based in Russia.
The fact that some people speak Russian in Ukraine/Belarus does not mean that it’s better to do it there. This is like trying to make an English-language podcast initiative in Republic of Ireland just because English is also the language spoken there. Furthermore, as far as I know Ukraine try to promote Ukrainian language more to distant further from Russia. Hence I don’t think it’s that crazy that they opt for Russia-based office rather than elsewhere, also the fact that there are more Russians meaning that they have bigger target audience.
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#3> Spotify had opened a representative office in Moscow. [...] Why? Seemingly just to get a bit closer to the treasuries of the region’s greatest kleptocrats.
or maybe it's easier to hire talent in Moscow (a metropolis of 17M) than Kyiv (3M), sheesh
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#4Tech companies face a tough choice on censorship but the timing of this one is especially bad.
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#5> Here we may take a break to consider the fact that Russian is not only the language of one country, Russia. It is also the native language for millions of Ukrainians and Belarusians. Therefore it is far from obvious that a Russian-language podcast initiative should be based in Russia. The fact that some people speak Russian in Ukraine/Belarus does not mean that it’s better to do it there. This is like trying to mak…
Full quote, emphasis mine:
> Here we may take a break to consider the fact that Russian is not only the language of one country, Russia. It is also the native language for millions of Ukrainians and Belarusians. Therefore it is far from obvious that a Russian-language podcast initiative should be based in Russia. For an organization serious about defending free speech, it might have made more sense to locate the office in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv: a predominantly Russian-speaking city, which in recent years has also served as a refuge for many dissidents from Russia and Belarus.
Also, earlier:
> Yet, a better alternative would have been to keep operating, while declaring openly that their media machine will be available for the dissidents in Russia
To read an article like that and and come away thinking the argument being made is "Russian is spoken in Ukraine and Belarus therefore it should be based there" is... well, unlikely tbh.
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#6> Spotify had opened a representative office in Moscow. [...] Why? Seemingly just to get a bit closer to the treasuries of the region’s greatest kleptocrats. or maybe it's easier to hire talent in Moscow (a metropolis of 17M) than Kyiv (3M), sheesh
Why write such a dismissive comment when that’s not the point at all?
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#7This doesn’t seem any more cowardly than YouTube’s decision to ban RT. Hard to claim to be on the side of free speech when American tech companies are censoring right and left.
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#8What does opening representative office has to do with their stand?
Apple and Google, Meta also opened representative offices back in February. Did in stop them from doing business here (at least part of it, likely temporarily)? No.
>At the same time, both Instagram and Youtube have been blocked in Russia. But not Spotify.
That's not true. Twitter and Facebook are blocked (even though they also "submitted to the Kremlin"). Instagram and Youtube are not.
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#9Russia is known to murder dissidents. For Spotify leaders to make a stand from the safety of the US and paint a target on the backs of their Russian employees would be the cowardly option. If the employees their want to choose on their own to take a stand that's up to them, but it's not a choice that Spotify should make for them.
Re: Spotify made a cowardly choice: to submit to the Kremlin
#10Russia is known to murder dissidents. For Spotify leaders to make a stand from the safety of the US and paint a target on the backs of their Russian employees would be the cowardly option. If the employees their want to choose on their own to take a stand that's up to them, but it's not a choice that Spotify should make for them.
Your point of view might have some merit to it if there a basis in fact.
Do you dispute the author's claim "On Wednesday night [March 2], Spotify announced that it is closing its Moscow office"?