Tech Solidarity and Double Standards: Why #StandWithUkraine, But Not #StandWithPalestine?
The Tech Community's Selective Solidarity
Ukraine vs. Palestine - Why the Different Responses?
In early 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the global tech community responded swiftly and unequivocally. Developer blogs, open-source maintainers, big tech companies, and even generic library documentation pages displayed Ukrainian flags. Banners appeared on top of React documentation, npm packages added post-install scripts to show support, and companies matched employee donations. It was a powerful display of how the tech industry can mobilize for a humanitarian cause.
However, when Israel launched military operations in Gaza—resulting in a staggering number of civilian casualties and infrastructure destruction—the same platforms were largely silent. The contrast was deafening. #StandWithPalestinehas rarely been amplified by major tech influencers or organizations.
Political Sensitivities and Corporate Risk
Why the difference? Tech companies, especially massive conglomerates headquartered in the West, operate within the geopolitical framework of their host countries. Supporting Ukraine aligned perfectly with U.S. and EU foreign policy. It was "safe" activism. It carried zero reputational risk and was universally applauded.
Supporting Palestine, conversely, is viewed as "controversial." It risks friction with stakeholders, investors, and political entities. Despite the issue being fundamentally about human rights—access to water, shelter, and safety—it is framed as complex politics. This leads organizations to opt for silence over perceived risk, revealing that corporate "values" are often just calculated PR moves.
Narrative Framing and Humanization
There is also a deeply uncomfortable truth about who gets humanized in tech media. When the war in Ukraine started, we saw endless stories about Ukrainian developers. We saw photos of them coding from bomb shelters, we heard about their startups. They were presented as "people like us."
Palestinian technologists, students, and workers exist too. They are part of our global community. But they are rarely afforded the same narrative empathy. Western media frequently depoliticizes Eastern Europeans while politicizing Middle Easterners. When a Ukrainian developer is killed, it is a tragedy. When a Palestinian developer is killed, they are often reduced to a statistic. This bias seeps into how we, as a community, react to their suffering.
The Impact of Platform Bias and Censorship
Shadowbanning
Many developers and creators have reported content reach reductionwhen posting about Palestine. Algorithmic moderation on major social platforms often flags humanitarian terms like "Gaza" or "Free Palestine" as potentially hateful or sensitive content, hiding it from feeds.
Selective Activism
The open-source community prides itself on ethics (Sources Available, Free Speech), yet shows selective outrage. We rally behind "safe" issues (Net Neutrality, Climate Change) but often ignore others that are equally urgent if they don't fit the dominant narrative.
Moving Forward: True Inclusivity
If "Diversity and Inclusion" is to mean anything, it cannot stop at borders defined by western foreign policy. As technologists, we build the tools that connect the world. We have a responsibility to ensure that connection reinforces our shared humanity.
Normalize borderless solidarity
Support human rights based on principles, not popularity or political expediency.
Amplify suppressed voices
Use your platform to share stories from communities that are being silenced or ignored.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
We must ask ourselves: are we truly inclusive, or just selectively comfortable?