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Australian tech company Canva, which has over 60 million active users and is worth at least $37bn, continues to provide Russians access to its free version of its product despite the ongoing war against Ukraine.
The digital design company has not ceased its operations in the country even after other multinational companies have pulled out, earning the lowest grade on a tracker run by US university Yale and outraging Ukrainians in Australia.
Software engineer Uvi Levitski stated that Canva’s actions were “inconsistent with what we believe an ethical company’s response should have been”.
“The Australian Ukrainian diaspora is understandably appalled by Canva’s unprincipled position and the lack of action,” he said.
Mr Levitski is part of an informal group of Ukrainian expatriates who have been monitoring the activities of Australian companies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He said some members of the Australian-Ukrainian community were considering protesting outside Canva’s offices in the inner-Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.
Meanwhile, a Russian engagement tracker run by the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale University’s School of Management revealed that Canva drew in the “digging in” grade because it is “still providing services to Russia”.
The tracker includes five other Australian companies aside from Canva: Atlassian, Viva Energy, law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, Qantas and Rio Tinto.
These companies have been labelled by the tracker as either “suspension” or withdrawal”, having either stopped serving the Russian market for the time being or pulled out entirely.
Canva’s Head of Communications Lachlan Andrews said the company has already suspended payments to and from Russia on 1 March.
“The free version of Canva remains available in Russia along with a prominent banner displaying our opposition to the war and directing users to our pro-peace and anti-war templates,” he said.
He said that the company also included “prominent” banners in its product “highlighting the illegal war in Ukraine” – an approach that he said was likely to result in Canva being banned in Russia.
“However, until then, we believe we have an important responsibility to use our reach, particularly with our 1.4 million users in Russia, to promote truth and accurate information,” he said.
Aside from Canva’s stand on the war, Mr Levitski also referred to the company’s blogpost entitled “Supporting Ukraine and Promoting Peace” as “weakly worded”.
The blogpost refers to the issue as an “unlawful and reckless act of aggression” and does not use the word “invasion”. Meanwhile, the word “war” appears only in a sample layout template that Canva’s co-founder Cliff Obrecht said was for free to “amplify the important call for peace while bringing additional awareness to the tragic situation continuing to unfold”.
Mr Obrecht also promised that the company would donate $1m “to those impacted by this crisis”.
“We’re also thinking of our Russian community, many of whom are incredibly hurt, upset, and have had no choice in the tragic events that are unfolding,” Mr Obrecht said in the post.
However, Mr Levitski said that polling in Russia showed the vast majority of the population supported the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that, in the absence of any moderation of private content, the amount of pro-war material made using Canva by users in Russia will similarly outweigh anti-war material, thus disproportionally benefiting the already all-powerful Kremlin propaganda machine,” he said.
“And that’s even ignoring the fact that public opposition to the war has been effectively criminalised and is punishable with up to 15 years of imprisonment.”
Following inquiries from Guardian Australia, Canva added an update to the blogpost on Tuesday stating that the company is “strongly opposed to the ongoing war in Ukraine and strongly condemns Russia’s continued and illegal acts of aggression”.
Mr Andrews said the company had “a number of mechanisms in place to prevent Canva from being used for the wrong reason, including proactive content moderation”.
“While we haven’t seen any evidence of Canva being used for the wrong reasons, accounts found to be doing so will be immediately blocked,” he said.
This article was first published on Public Spectrum
Eliza Sayon is an experienced writer who specialises in corporate and government communications. She is the content producer for Public Spectrum, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian public sector.
