Google became the first company to receive the Ukraine Peace Prize, introduced by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. It was presented by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov during a meeting with Karan Bhatia, Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google, in Davos within the framework of the International Economic Forum.
“On February 24, there began a new history of not only Ukraine but also the entire international community. The world is changing, the old system is no longer efficient. Everyone must express a clear position on whom they support. We are pleased to emphasize with this award that Google is a great friend of Ukraine. Literally from the first days of the war you started to help us on the information front, with many initiatives for business and most importantly – with the humanitarian support of our citizens,” said Mykhailo Fedorov during the meeting.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Google.org and Google staff have made millions in donations and provided $45 million in grants. In addition, the company was one of the first to impose sanctions on russia.
“Joining the sanctions policy was also an important step. Suspension of Google advertising in russia, of cooperation with russian advertisers as well as the refusal of new registrations in cloud services of GooglePay and monetization features for YouTube in russia. In addition, from the first days, Google blocked advertising and tried to provide coverage of the war in the most accurate way. Since the beginning of the war, YouTube has removed more than 9,000 channels and 70,000 videos that distorted the truth about russian aggression,” the Minister stressed.
Already on February 26, Google terminated the monetization of russian state media around the world, including RT and Sputnik, for an indefinite period, and then on March 2, YouTube blocked all channels related to all russian state media in Europe. Google has also expanded cybersecurity for Ukrainian accounts. Project Shield has become very important for our state resources and media – Ukraine is grateful for free unlimited protection against DDoS attacks.
In turn, Vice President of Google Karan Bhatia stressed: “The war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis it has caused are devastating. From the beginning of the war we tried to help as much as we could. We have provided more than $45 million in humanitarian support and are working to make our tools as useful as possible – by providing access to verified information and helping to combat cyberattacks. It is a great honor for us that our work was awarded with this special Peace Prize by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We will continue to work with the Ukrainian Government to provide more support as long as necessary.”