Cloudflare claims if it shuts down operations in Russia, it would be a victory for the Russian government.
Cloudflare and Akamai have each confirmed they will continue to operate in Russia, despite being urged to do otherwise. Both companies have argued that if they were to pull their services, they would be hurting Russian citizens who are trying to access information from outside of the country, but said they condemn Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince wrote in a blog post acknowledging that the company has received «several calls to terminate» all of its services inside Russia, including by government. «Our conclusion… is that Russia needs more internet access, not less,» he said. «As the conflict has continued, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in requests from Russian networks to worldwide media, reflecting a desire by ordinary Russian citizens to see world news beyond that provided within Russia.» He continued: «Indiscriminately terminating service would do little to harm the Russian government, but would both limit access to information outside the country, and make significantly more vulnerable those who have used us to shield themselves as they have criticized the government». Prince also claimed that if Cloudflare were to stop operating in Russia, the Russian government would «celebrate us shutting down». «We absolutely appreciate the spirit of many Ukrainians making requests across the tech sector for companies to terminate services in Russia. However, when what Cloudflare is fundamentally providing is a more open, private, and secure Internet, we believe that shutting down Cloudflare’s services entirely in Russia would be a mistake,» he said.
