Google, Meta and TikTok delete accounts of Russian drone factory
Kyiv • UNN
Social media deleted the accounts of a company in Tatarstan that recruited foreign women to produce drones. The accounts had more than 158,000 followers and promised women jobs, but in reality they were forced to assemble drones for attacks on Ukraine.
Google, Meta and TikTok deleted social media accounts belonging to an industrial enterprise in Tatarstan, Russia. It was this company that was recruiting young foreign women for the production of drones. This was reported by the Associated Press, according to UNN.
Details
The accounts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok were deleted following an investigation published by the agency on October 10, which detailed working conditions at a drone manufacturing plant in Russia's Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under US and UK sanctions.
Videos and other posts on social media promised young women, mostly from Africa, a free plane ticket to Russia and a salary of more than $500 a month.
However, some of them said they were unexpectedly told that instead of training in industries such as hospitality and catering, they would have to work at a weapons factory assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones for launch into Ukraine.
In an interview with the publication, some of the women who worked at the enterprise complained about the long hours of constant surveillance, broken promises of salary, and working with caustic chemicals.
American tech companies also deleted the accounts of the Alabuga Polytechnic Institute, a vocational boarding school whose graduates are considered specialists in drone production.
In total, the accounts had at least 158,344 followers, and one of the TikTok pages had more than a million likes.
