Canva

The war in Ukraine and russian terrorism/fascism

On the 24th of February 2022 russia started a major escalation in the war in Ukraine. This war began in 2014 with russia first annexing Crimea and then invading parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, but three months ago rusia decided that it’s now time to invade the entire country, kill everyone in power and everyone with a pro-Ukrainian position. This decision resuted in a full-scale genocide of Ukrainians with many cities destroyed, tens of thousands of civilians killed (of which at least 250 are children). Here is a short video that was shown by the Ukrainian president at US congress to highlight the scale of russian atrocities: https://youtu.be/SFe-108zQSI.

After russians where kicked out from the Ukraine’s capital surroundings the world has seen horrible images from the city of Bucha with mass graves, raped children, executed civilians lying dead on a side of the road, etc. Sadly, similar images are seen in every city that russian troops enter. While before Bucha many people in the west believed that Vladimir Putin is the only person who should be blamed for the war, after seeing images from Bucha it became apparent that the entire russian society is infected with the horrible fascist ideology (ruscism): https://youtu.be/_iLpIocmCVQ. Those horrific atrocities were not committed by Vladimir Putin, but by ordinary russians, over 80% of whom support the war in Ukraine, according to the latest poll: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/18/1093282038/russia-war-public-opinion-polling.

Over 50 contries have united against russian aggression and started helping Ukraine. Australia is one of those countries. The atrocities committed by russia also resulted in a legal process of recognising russian actions as genocide and russia as a terrorist state akin to ISIS. Here are some examples:

1. Lituania officially recognised russia as a terrorist state and russian actions in Ukraine as genocide: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1097911440/lithuania-russia-terrorism-genocide-ukraine.
2. Canada officially declared russian actions in Ukraine as genocide: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/28/1095272683/canada-russia-genocide-ukraine and is working on recogning russia as a terrorist state.
3. The USA is pushing for recognising russia as state sponsor of terrorism: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/10/ukraine-war-senate-to-push-for-russia-to-be-named-terrorism-sponsor.html
4. Parliaments of Latvia and Estonia recognised russian actions in Ukraine as genocide: https://thehill.com/policy/international/3304150-parliaments-of-latvia-estonia-declare-russia-has-committed-genocide-in-ukraine/

Many countries introduced economic sanctions. Many companies took a moral stance and stopped operating in russia. Our objective is to make sure that Canva, an iconic Australian company, also joins and stops operating in russia.

Why is it so important that Canva stops operating in russia?

Every war is not only a battle of soldiers and weapons, but also a battle of economies. One of our goals is to make sure that russian economy falls as quickly as possible. Their economy falling would result in the end of the war.

The best-case scenario to end the horrific war that russia has unleashed on Ukraine is for russian people to take on the streets and overthrow their fascist government. This scenario is better than any other alternative both for russians and for Ukrainians. The sooner it happens, the fewer lives will be lost on both sides and the lower will be the economic cost.

This scenario, however, will not materialise until “fridge wins against the TV” in russia. Only when people start losing jobs and see other signs of widescale economic devastation will they realise that this war brought them no glory or prosperity, unlike what their government has promised. For this to happen, western businesses must exit russia. Every bit of discomfort for russians, every dollar of lost revenue matters.

Sadly, companies like Canva stand in the way of this best-case scenario. Canva’s co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht defends his decision to stay in russia by saying that he wants to continue to keep Canva available to the russian community to create pro-peace and anti-war content as well as to use Canva for education and non-profits. Cliff claims that Canva: “ceased processing all payments in the region to ensure that we’re not making any financial contributions to the russian economy”: https://www.wideformatonline.com/news/wide-format-news/11980-canva-defends-business-operations-in-russia-stora-enso-exits.html.

The truth is that by offering access to Canva software for free to russian users Canva does contribute to the russian economy. With Canva’s help russian designers can create paid content, receive salary and pay taxes. Canva helps to keep russian economy afloat and subsidises it by offering free tools for generating revenue. The motivation to stay in russia is unlikely to be what is claimed by Cliff Obrecht in his statement. Most likely Canva is using the opportunity to grow their user base in the situation when the competition (such as Adobe) stopped accepting new users in russia. We tried creating an account using a russian IP and were successful with registering as a large commercial organisation, created a propaganda template and were never asked to confirm that we are an educational institution or a non-profit organisation. Our understanding is that there are no restrictions on who can have a Canva account in russia. It seems that Canva management only name education and non-profits to sound good in their statement. In reality, the vast majority of users would likely be commercial clients. It is also important to understand that even non-profits and still employ people, pay salary and pay taxes. As for the educational institutions, here is an example of what does russian education look like today: https://fb.watch/davb_qqMCS/.

As for keeping Canva available for creating anti-war content in russia, this is nothing but unsubstantiated wishful thinking. No such content was seen on the streets of russia in the past 90 days. People were arrested for holding a blank piece of paper or a handwritten poster. The problem is not a lack of a fancy template, but that nobody is willing to hold an anti-war poster in a fascist state where one gets 15 years in jail for protesting. Canva is an online platform. Storing anti-war templates online in a country where internet is heavily censored and controlled by the government is much riskier than to scribble “No War” on a piece of paper. In the end, both deliver the same message. Here is the statement from the NSW president of Svoboda Alliance (an Australian anti-war russian organisation) who condemns Canva’s decision to continue operating in russia and provides additional arguments contrary to Canva’s public statement:

Despite all the pressure it seems that it is very important for Canva to stay in russia. We can only see one possible reason – money. We met with Canva’s management and did not receive any other plausible explanation.

Ukrainians today are dying for our shared values and shared freedoms. It is everyone’s responsibility to help Ukraine defend these. Leaving russia is not a decision that threatens Canva’s survival. There are currently 1.9% of Canva’s users, who are located in russia and these are not paid users. For Ukraine (and the world), on the other hand, winning this war is a matter of survival. It was made abundantly clear by the russian government that they will not stop at Ukraine. They also made multiple threats to use nuclear weapons against their enemies (Australia has been officially named as an enemy state). This is why making sure that russian economy collapses is the best-case scenario for everyone (including russians). Only creating substantial economic pressures will make russian people realise that their government is lying and that there is no prosperity or glory for them in this war. Only then will they take on the streets to overthrow Putin’s government. Nobody benefits from a nuclear war, nobody benefits from World War 3. We all have to contribute to making the best-case scenario possible.

Canva’s slogan is: “be a good human”. Be good humans, Canva, stop making excuses and exit russia now!

Canva Q&A

Some people reach out and question why we demand action from Canva or whether it is a good idea. Here are some of the common questions that we receive and answers to these.

Q: Many people in Canva support Ukraine and help Ukraine. Why are you targeting them?
A: We are not targeting individual employees. We are targeting a company, the management of which made an immoral choice to continue operating in russia despite the atrocities that russia commits in Ukraine.

Q: Read their statement. Can’t you see that they support Ukraine?
A: Actions speak louder than words. By remaining in russia Canva, albeit indirectly, are helping russian economy to stay afloat. Canva exiting russia will result in a great deal of economic pressure for russians and will help to end the war sooner.

Q: Canva donated so much money to Ukraine, why are you targeting them?
A: We appreciate Canva’s donation and the fact that they encourage employees to help Ukraine by matching their donations. However, Canva mistakenly expects that with their donation they can bribe the public into turning a blind eye to their other, less ethical activities. Besides, the $1m (give or take) that they’ve donated pales in comparison Canva’s financial interests in russia. According to Similarweb, a digital intelligence provider, Canva receives as much web traffic from Russia (1.75%) as it does from Australia (1.74%). Now, for a SaaS company, subscriber base is one of the primary metrics contributing to its valuation, and Canva is currently valued at an estimated AU$55 billion. Even adjusted for differences in local pricing (AU$83.76 in russia vs AU$174.99 for Canva Pro annual subscription), it’s plain to see that should Canva leave russia, they are set to lose dozens of millions in value plus the sunk costs of local marketing — which supports the hypothesis that their decision to remain is a purely financial one.

Q: Canva ceased processing all payments in the region to ensure that they’re not making any financial contributions to the Russian economy.
A: Their statement in russia (that was updated after our first protest) used to say that they are unable to process payments because of sanctions, not because of their moral stance. We tend to believe that this is the true reason. Besides, they can’t gloss over the fact that simply by continuing offering their services in russia they continue to contribute to russia’s economy — and their claim that this contribution is not directly financial is nothing more than an irrelevant sideshow.

Q: Canva stays in russia because they want to help creating content for education and non-profits. What do you have against this?
A: Our understanding is that anyone can create an account in Canva. We haven’t seen any mechanisms by which Canva specifically targets non-profits and educational institutions. Anyone can create an account in russia and Canva does not seem to control or care about who they are. Canva’s management simply chose some appealing examples, which in reality represent an insignificant minority of their users.

Q: Canva stays because they want to help those wishing to promote peace to do so using the range of pro-peace templates and illustrations that Canva has purposely created. What do you have against this?
A: If Canva was genuine about this intention, then they would’ve restricted the use of Canva in russia to only those templates and illustrations. Instead, we’re seeing that no restrictions have been imposed on their free product.

Q: Why are you targeting Canva. There are many other less ethical companies out there?
A: Ukrainians around the world are working with companies to make sure that they exit russia. We found that it is most effective to only target companies with head offices located in the country where the given community lives (in our case it’s Australia). In our decisions we are guided by the Yale list (created by international analysts), which before our meeting with Canva’s management listed Canva as one of the worst Australian companies in terms of their exposure to the russian market. It is also important to notice that Canva is an opinion-maker, who positions itself as a highly ethical business. Many other businesses look up to Canva and bring up Canva’s decision not to leave russia as their excuse not to do so as well.