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  • 25
    They have 27%, not full ownership: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosus Commented Mar 4, 2022 at 17:15
  • 31
    I don't like conspiracy theories. One can find something, always, then rally others saying "LOOK! GOLDEN PROOF FOR [whatever you want here]!!!". Sadly it works because people love to cling to anything. Commented Mar 5, 2022 at 16:15
  • 4
    "not condemn Russia or show support for Ukraine" To be fair they do show support, just not the one you would like to see. My guess is that if the war should be prolonged and the number of casualties should increase, the stance of company here will be seen more and more critical, even if potential measures might be seen as rather ineffective. At some point one might ask if it wouldn't have been better to do even the little stuff. The "open information makes the world safer" argument might be too simplified in the end. The world obviously isn't safe. Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 11:55
  • 23
    @Trilarion The reason it bothers me is that they never shied away from being political in the past, even if it meant getting into huge rows with moderators. They've temporarily changed their logo to make political statements before. Right now they seem primarily concerned with not stepping on any Russian toes. Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 15:09
  • 10
    Prosus to write off $700 mln stake in Russia's VK Group Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 20:07
  • 5
    It's true that it was a little on the edge as far as theory goes, but I had mostly just wanted them to address whether it presented a conflict of interest with my original comment. Thank you for highlighting that here in this answer, I am both surprised and a little happy that they wound down their VK stake. It always seemed like an odd pairing, and overall the decision makes me a little hopeful for the naspers group in general. Commented Mar 8, 2022 at 6:17
  • 7
    @TravisJ With the CEO of VK on the sanctions list, I don't think they had much choice. There remains the fact that Avito is an even larger investment in financial terms, but on the other hand it seems less problematic, both in terms of its history and leadership, and of its content. Commented Mar 8, 2022 at 6:27
  • 35
    @ShadowWizardSaysNoMoreWar Uh, what?! Pointing out an actual monetary conflict of interests (and the fact that this manifest COI wasn’t addressed by SO) isn’t a “conspiracy theory”. Commented Mar 13, 2022 at 9:40
  • 3
    I'm opposed to the sanctions regime and I'm not sure the enforced severing economic ties is going to increase chances for peace, but as an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist I think it's always important for people to know where a given institution or person fits into the graph of money and power, so I appreciate this post for bringing this relationship to my attention. We need to apply a "follow the money" analysis to every act of war, aggression and subjugation. It can never tell us the whole story, but the whole story is never told without it. Commented Mar 23, 2022 at 18:49
  • 4
    SO has ability to add some pressure on Russia, but doesn't. Could donate to some charities focused on supporting Ukraine civilians, instead only donates to generic global NGOs [some good ones, but still...]. Seems SO has made its choice, a choice to avoid doing anything that might directly help Ukraine. Follow the money... Commented Mar 26, 2022 at 14:04
  • 2
    note that Naspers is also wechat's original backer, so they're perfectly comfortable with banning media when it's good for business Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 15:42
  • FYI for anyone who's reading this later: Naspers sold off Avito in October 2022. Commented Jan 17 at 22:02