18 August 2022

Following Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many tech companies left Russia and Belarus. Governments around the world implemented wide-ranging sanctions...The U.S. now explicitly exempts the types of services Mailchimp provides from its sanctions on Russia. Mailchimp is based in the U.S. Yet despite Mailchimp’s public promise to reinstate the accounts of “independent news organizations, civil rights, and similar groups,” it has not only failed to do so, but is also actively ignoring our inquiries on the issue. 

On June 21, Access Now and Teplitsa, Technologies for Social Good sent a letter asking Mailchimp to live up to its pledge. Two months later, Mailchimp is still silent, while the organizations they cut off are struggling to survive.

Mailchimp is blocking leading NGOs and independent media groups vital for defending human rights in Russia and opposing the war in Ukraine. These include prominent Russian media organizations like Crew against Torture (formerly Committee against Torture)...Their lawyers risk their lives daily to defend victims of Russian government abuse, so the government labeled the organization a “foreign agent.” Mailchimp is also blocking GOLOS, Holod, and OVD-Info, as well as charity organizations that help homeless individuals and individuals with HIV...

Mailchimp is not the only company helping Putin’s regime repress activists and journalists. Slack, Sectigo, and many other companies provide essential communications and website security tools. But when they left Russia, they all blocked Russian accounts indiscriminately.

Fortunately, some companies have reversed their decisions. After we called out Namecheap, an SSL certificate provider, for silencing Putin regime critics, they changed course, announcing they would still provide services for civil society actors in Russia and Belarus opposing the war in Ukraine...

As it stands, Mailchimp and other tech companies are ignoring the U.S. government, U.N. human rights experts, and digital rights groups with expertise in this area. This only helps Putin’s campaign to censor and repress Russian civil society organizations and independent media reporting on the war in Ukraine. We urge them to uphold their business and human rights obligations and protect Russia’s civil society human rights defenders...