Billion-dollar Aussie brand Canva responds to protesters rallying against maintaining business with Russia

Aussie tech giant Canva has responded after protesters swarmed its Sydney office demanding it take action over the Ukraine war.

Dozens of protesters lined the streets of Sydney’s Surry Hills today to protest against Canva, the billion-dollar Aussie graphic design company, for its supposed “support” of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Protesters said the fact Canva had not cut its services to Russian customers was proof it was complicit in the superpower’s territorial push in Ukraine, a conflict that has now seen thousands die and several million displaced.

Canva has been criticised after reportedly finding itself “at the bottom” of a list of global responses to Ukraine’s invasion. The tracker, ran by US university Yale, found almost 1000 companies had announced they were voluntarily curtailing operations to some degree beyond the bare minimum required by legal sanctions.

The Yale tracker originally marked Canva with an ‘F’ rating, claiming it was “digging in” with offering its services but after public outrage, the tech company clarified its position sending its ranking up to a ‘C’.

“Canva is still trading in Russia and hence funding the war in Ukraine,” the protesters said.

“It’s time that Canva goes on the right side of this war and stops trading in Russia.”

One sign held by a protester read: “Canva, your brand is tainted by war crimes”.

Canva co-founder Mr Obrecht condemned Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as an “illegal act of aggression” but said the picture editor’s free service remained accessible in the country so that users were able to design protest images.

Canva, which boasts more than 60 million active users and is valued at least $37 billion, said it had suspended payments to and from Russia on March 1, had donated $1 million to Ukrainian contributors and charities and also directed users to its “pro-peace and anti-war templates”.

“Like billions of people around the world, we are strongly opposed to the ongoing war in Ukraine and strongly condemn Russia’s continued and illegal acts of aggression,’ Mr Obrecht wrote.

“Our pro-peace templates have been used more than 275,000 times since the start of the war.

“Our hope is that we can provide the Russian community with a platform to champion important causes, communicate their opposition to the war, and to join in the resounding global calls for peace.”

Photos from the protest in front of @canva@MelanieCanva#BoycottRussia
Canva claims to support Ukraine but has yet to do a complete withdrawal. This is giving economic and morale support to Russia. pic.twitter.com/tvN1FKgFIB

— Nicholas B 🇦🇺🇺🇦 (@Morn) May 26, 2022

Ukrainian software engineer Uvi Levitski, who works with a group that is monitoring the actions of companies following the invasion, said critics were ’appalled’ by the company’s “inconsistent unprincipled position”.

“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,” Mr Levitskii said via the Guardian.

“Thus disproportionately benefiting the already all-powerful Kremlin propaganda machine.

“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.”

Protesters said the fact Canva had not cut its services to Russian customers was proof it was complicit in the superpower’s territorial push in Ukraine.

Several major corporations have completely ceased operations in Russia in the months after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Fast food giant McDonald’s shuttered its 850 Russian branches but continued to pay its 62,000 employees in the nation.

McDonald’s was one of the first western brands to open in Russia and, in the 1990s, it was seen as potent symbol of Russia opening to the world. But it has said it will now begin “de-Arching” its stores in Russia in a move expected to cost the firm some $US1.4 billion ($2bn).

French automaker Renault also announced it had handed over its Russian assets to the government in Moscow, marking the first major nationalisation of the economic disentanglement.

Other noble displays of solidarity from corporations include Woolworths’ relabelling of Chicken Kiev packets to “Chicken Kyiv”.