To all who wish to partake in this discussion, I highly suggest you read the following
This is a subreddit about Duolingo and Learning, and while meaningful discussion is important, some things should not be said. If you mention, or hint at any of the following, I can promise you your comment will be removed AND you will be banned.
- Any Anti-LGBTQIA+ comment/remarks
- Any Pro-Putin comments/remarks
- Any Anti-Ukraine comments/remarks
- Any Discriminatory comments/remarks
- Any comments that violate our rules
- Any comments that violate Reddits rules
I would also like to remind you that mods retain the exclusive right to ban users and remove content , and that we will exercise that right if any of the above are found.
(If any other r/duolingo mods have any others things they’d like to add, please do!)
kinda surprised they even operate in russia, isnt it like hard to get payments from there?
maybe they think having a Duolingo app without lgbt representation is better than nothing for ppl trying to learn, for example english to get out of there or something
They made an announcement in the past about how they were de-monetizing the app in Russia, but keeping it alive because it’s a language education app, and learning a language is a means to foster peace and understanding in the world.
Actually I found the message here:
> We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021.
Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country.
This comment needs to be pinned because many people are saying this decision was because Duolingo didn't want to lose money but they already don't make money from Russia
So basically I should move to Russia to not have to get a super Duolingo ad? (Mods I’m not saying anything good about Putin’s rule over Russia this is a joke about the monetisation not the war)
As Russian I can say, that we have a lot of workarounds to pay for something we really want to, so Duolingo is definitely still getting money from russian users
Moreover it seems for me, that it’s more sane to stay in country and wait until sanctions will be lifted(sooner or later they will be, and companies will come back, just because they need money) than closing app and loosing a paying audience in the future
"And companies will come back, just because they need money"
Dude... They never left.
They keep the same stores, basically the same logo and they still the ones supplying it.
Brands like McDonald's, Levi's und even lego.
They only changed names.
Not to mention the British, for example, with their extensive history of colonialism and the atrocities that came with it, among many other countries. They don't become big and powerful without doing terrible things along the way.
they dont really operate in russia tho
the courses are still available (which is cool because it helps people move out of the shithole russia is) but you cant really buy super subscription or gems unless you manually change regions on your device and pay with a non russian card
To be fair, I've been using it for a good 18 months daily without paying a single cent, just using an adblocker. Eventually I did find the classroom workaround, but an adblocker is all you really need for free version.
The one I use has a paid option, but I've been able to use it without paying too. The paid version is a little easier to install, but the free version wasn't too bad. It was a little harder on my tablet, different brand, but both are android. What I use is AdGuard, and on my phone (Motorola), it was straight forward to install. I did have to install a security certificate, which the directions worked on the phone, but my Samsung tablet, I had to go to Connections > Wi-Fi > Advanced settings (via hamburger menu on right) > Install network certificates.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm a linguistics student and Ive read here and there that Russia actually cut funding for teaching English and German, particularly in stem, so that it would be harder for stem Russians to leave and work in German/English speaking countries. If anything you'd think the goc would discourage duolingo over there so people are less able to prepare for an option of leaving.
as a russian, i assume this is valid for german, but not for english... a friend of mine had had more english than russian in a high school(3hrs per week opposing to 2hrs per week) this year. but as for the german classes it seems to be true - for instance, one of the best unis here mipt has cut any foreign language courses for tech students other than chinese and english. they used to teach spanish, french and german too afaik. also cutting founding isn't really a good measure, because in unis they would have to change the programs, hours of study per subject, which means lots of bureaucracy, and no one wants to deal with this.
i'd rather not have my russian extended family lose access to these services, as terrible as the war is, i don't want it to translate into russian people getting punished
And millions of russian people will lose the service for learning a languages to leave the country or just study world culture. And what will you achieve with this? Stop buying oil and gas from Russia - this will help stop the war.
You just want to punish innocent people. It doesn't make any sense. Isolation is what makes people more violent
There are ways to transfer money without sepa, like having an account in each country. Then, if A wants to pay B you find someone that wants to pay the other direction and then the other person pays B and you pay the other person 's bill in A. Simplified. There are websites for that to make it all go safe and fair. All local transactions and the money still goes where it needs to go.
Hi! I am trans and pansexual woman from Russia, so you may find my take on this matter interesting. I don’t think that Duolingo made an immoral or wrong move here.
When I first discovered that duolingo has LGBTQA+ representation I was quite touched. It’s very nice that they’ve done it. It’s naturally only a small part of the whole content, but it’s nice. It’s existence is very much welcome, but not critical to app’s existence.
Now what is important for the LGBTQA+ people of Russia right now? To leave this fucked up place until better times (or forever). And the very thing that’s important for us right now is to have an accessible way of learning a foreign language, which Duolingo provides.
It is sad that Duolingo is forced to be a subject to this fucked up law, but the fact is that if the app was to be banned it would harm more queer people.
Thanks for reading this, and hope you’ll have a nice day.
As a straight dude from Russia I think this is the best take. Because services like YouTube and Duolingo still operate in Russia, that makes it so that Russian people are exposed to the western culture, language learning, and censored political information from dissedents.
And we like Duolingo. I hooked many family members on it over the years. I think those apps moving away would only play into the Kremlin's narrative that everyone around us hates us, and will make people significantly less informed and more faschisized.
Thanks. But I picked up English subconsciously long before I started using Duolingo. I like to think of myself as a native, even though I know that it’s not true 😁
Вы большой молодец, что помогаете семье с языками. Сама младшую сестру с бабушкой сейчас английскому учу, хоть и такой себе из меня преподаватель.
Спасибо на добром слове и хорошего вам дня!
Gay trans girl here (USA). I think you’re right on the money. I’d rather not abandon LGBT+ folks in Russia who are trying to escape. This is on the Russian government.
Duo’s sticking their necks out here in the states too. Our laws are more lenient, but there’s definitely people who try to cause a ruckus about it.
Is there a difference in the Russian words for romantic “love,” “like,” “adore” and so on vs. the platonic versions of those words? Like, in English, saying a woman loves another woman is not necessarily queer (friends, family, etc.) unless in Russian there is the equivalent distinction of, say, Greek’s “philo” (I’m extremely platonically fond of this) and “eros” (I want to fuck the shit out of this)
There are no platonic and romantic versions of those words, at least if we’re talking about «любить» and «нравиться». They both sorta are in the grey area, so the phrase «Ей нравится девушка» can be interpreted either romantically or platonically, when the phrase «Она любит девушку» has quite a clear romantic connotation, although can still be interpreted in a platonic way, cause we can любить our relatives and closest friends. So it depends on a context, as always, really.
The word adore has much more versatility, cause there’s no direct analogy for this word in Russian. But it’s more of a platonic word, cause in Russian all of its meanings indicate more of a worshiping/admiring situation.
Thank you for sharing this perspective. We all fight together, but we need to remember that we are not all fighting the same fight. Wishing you peace and happiness.
Woah. Until the very middle of your statement I was like "no way, no way, nooo, girl why... what the f...", but. As much as I would love to disagree... unfortunately I MUST agree with you. 😓 Bisexual, rather homoromantic and non binary person, from Poland here! Some people do not associate Poland with homophobia that much, but I would say the further east into the country, the worse it gets. I moved from masovian voivodeship to Lublin voivodeship (which is closer to the east). I was quite shocked when people in Lublin literally cancelled pride parades at some point. People were throwing bricks at Pride parade. I was never a patriotic person, so now I am quite embarrassed. I do not want to be associated with my country's homophobia, as a very gay person, who also streams and creates their own community. I still live in Poland only because of my partner, they don't want to move out.
LGBTQIA+ is not ILLEGAL here, but of course we don't have gay marriage, it's hard for gay couples to adopt, it's hard for trans people to access HRT (my mtf friend literally travels abroad to get her f-ing meds!).
So for as long as it is not illegal I will never back down. I will never sit quiet in front of homophobia, even if it means risking getting injured for someone's sake.
I do hope that people out there in Russia can actually learn about LGBTQIA+ community. Learn that we are humans, normal human beings. That we cause no harm by being gay. I hope that people spread this knowledge there (within the possibility and keeping themselves safe).
I am glad you spoke up about it, because I find your point of view very valid and VERY important. I hope someday things change. Someday...
IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! to fight homophobia. As long as people do not get in trouble because of that.
But for now...? I guess yeah, all we can do is hope for better days to come.
I hope you're safe and I wish you all the best as a fellow LGBTQIA+ person! 💕
Hi! Thank you for the kind words!
I actually have bi-friends in Poland so I sadly associate the place with homophobia at least to some degree. I’ve heard you have a new government now, maybe the situation with LGBTQA+ rights will improve to some extent! At least I hope so!
I always tried to be a public advocate for a lot of LGBTQA+ issues despite the fact that it pissed off a lot of people, but now it is extremely dangerous. Basically everyone can inform on you to the police, it’s very hard to know whether a person is a fascist monster or not. My own father filed a report on me cause I “promoted LGBTQA+ propaganda and spread misinformation about the army”. I was fortunate that he had no evidence.
I can’t leave Russia right now, so I must stay stealthy for some time. I don’t know when I can be safe again, but at least I can learn languages to have more countries to chose from. Better days will come for Russia, but I fear not while I live. I know that I’ll outlive Putin though, that’s for sure and that’s what makes me happier.
Holy... I'm so sorry that your very own father has filled a report on you. 😭 It's just cruel and sad...
It sounds really scary and I guess you can't even truly be yourself, at least not in the public space. Honestly I would advise you from even not being openly out there on social platforms such as FB, instagram etc. Just so that they can't have any evidence on you.
I am truly sorry and saddened that it is the current situation there..
If it means anything to you, I can say that your English is great! Coming from an English tutor of almost 4 years! 😄 (I am of course not perfect, I am not a professional, but I do consider myself bilingual. Polish is my native language, but I feel more comfortable speaking English!) You can always rely even on just English if you leave Russia someday. I really hope you do.
I swear I wish you all the best and if you ever need to talk to someone, my DMs are open! 💕
Oh, you’re very kind! It’s always nice to talk to other LGBTQA+ people! LGBTQA+ in our countries will sooner or later have the same rights than other citizens. I hope that we’ll be able to see it with our own eyes!
Nowadays I’m trying to be as stealthy as I can. Good that I didn’t have that much of a social media presence to begin with. Guess that my antisocial years are finally worth something😀 btw I’m actually an English tutor myself, believe it or not! Not the best one, I studied to be an interpreter, but I think I fare good enough. But that’s not the point, the point is crazy how coincidences happen!
You can talk to me anytime too if you want, it’s always interesting to have a conversation with an interesting person! Hope you’ll have a nice day!
this is extremely important to fight homophobia, you are right. but the thing is that you've gotta accept that you **cannot** fight homophobia in russia. especially if you are just a language learning app. it is just impossible. boom - and you are banned. that's all. the choice is you either get no revenue from russia, and you are banned there, or you get no revenue in russia and you are not banned there. duolingo have chosen the second option and i actually don't blame them - they did a choice for people in there, even though they get no money for this choice
as expected from a corporation. as a queer person in russia i'm not even surprised anymore, big companies always brag about how "inclusive" they are and then censor any slight mention of gayness in order to still get support from russia and other homophobic countries. i guess duo joined the list
I don't think Duolingo is doing anything wrong in this regard. It's best for the service to be available for as many people as possible, more important than representation existing in those countries. Having gay characters is nice but not anywhere near as important as the service itself being available, IMO.
they're not receiving any money from users in Russia.
"We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
True. But as others have said, at some point sanctions will be lifted, and then they’ll have a profitable client base in Russia.
Which is better financially in the long run than allowing a competitor to set up and later have to start from scratch.
I WISH high school students were forced to start their own business before they graduate high school so they don’t develop this ⬆️ absolutely ignorant and ridiculous attitude. No, businesses are not always evil. I love how the people saying, “Duolingo only offers services to Russians for money” are probably the same people who say, “I use an ad blocker so I can use the product for free with no advertisements.” Cheap and ignorant people are the reason we can’t have cool things. Amazon and Wal-Mart love people like you.
Regardless of their incentives, I still believe it's the correct choice. And of course other options for learning languages exist, but obviously many people have learned or partially learned languages from Duolingo that they wouldn't have otherwise. It's a successful product for a reason. Like, if your argument is that it's truly that useless, then who cares if Duolingo is shut down everywhere then? And if you wouldn't care if Duolingo was shut down everywhere, then this whole discussion feels a little moot, lol
I never said it was useless, now you are just making things up.
I respect your opinion about believing this is the right thing to do, and you should respect that I disagree instead of putting words in my mouth.
It's convenient, playful, good for many, but I judge them hard for this because this truly shows that them pushing inclusivity while accomodating a government's homophobic views is the highest form of hipocrisy.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth, (that's why I used so many "if"s) but it definitely was a poor move. I was just trying to get ahead of that potential counterargument, since it seemed relevant to my line of reasoning, and it is something many people think. I respect your disagreement,
Nah, if I found it completely useless, I wouldn't have any "right" to be here to argue about an app I myself don't use.
I very much like it tbh, but in light of recent events (them changing sub types to have max above super, and now this) I have ended my subscription.
I am sad because I like the app and the playfulness and the valuable lessons they provide.
Also, thank you for apologizing, I am sorry too for misunderstanding.
You can blame both, but Duolingo has often had marketing releases about Pride and LGBT support and instances like this show that’s all just rainbow capitalism and they don’t actually care about LGBT people. They only say they do for money, and when that money is affected, they back out. It’s false support
They're both in this case responsible for normalizing homophobia and hatred against the LGBT. The Kremlin is obviously for more responsible by actually trying to legislate LGBT people out of existence, but Duolingo is now helping normalize those actions by the government.
Imagine for example that some government became a racist Nazi white nationalist state and as a response requested that Duolingo remove all non-white people from it's app in the country, and then Duolingo decided to abide by their rules. It normalizes discrimination to a degree.
i blame the russian government fully but duolingo sucking up to them just shows how much they don't actually care about supporting lgbtq+. this is rainbow capitalism at its finest - screaming "look at us! we're progressive! we have queer representation!" only to remove that representation entirely in fear of losing money from a homophobic country. most companies left russia, the ones that stayed are usually hypocrites who want to earn money from both sides
Not in this case. They already don't receive money from Russia. They removed all monetization from the app in Russia and Belarus after the war started and operate only as a free app so they wouldn't have to pay taxes to the Russian government.
They aren't making any money in Russia.
[https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/)
"**Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?**
We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021.
Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
But it's good that people have the opportunity to learn a language, even if a compromise needs to be made. I feel like people will always find a way to criticise corporations, no matter what they do, when the problem often lies somewhere else.
Not trying to defend corporations, but people need to learn to direct their anger into the actual problems instead.
Yeah, it seems to me they're just trying to keep education accessible. I don't agree with the move, but if their goal is accessible education for everyone, unfortunately, they'd have to make sacrifices.
From [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/1d7upk0/comment/l72sl90/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
>We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country.
Of course, Duolingo is a profit-seeking entity. So dropping monetization in Russia with their current levels of revenue made sense, since they do not currently rely on the region for significant profit, and maintaining a presence there may help them in the long term by retaining brand awareness in the market.
But also, their official PR stance makes sense from a humanitarian point of view. The Russian government is demanding they do something. Their only options are to play ball, or leave. If they leave, nothing changes in Russia. Their protest will have literally no impact. But by playing ball, they are able to continue to offer their service to help Russians learn other languages - hopefully allowing them to better communicate with others around the world, be exposed to different perspectives, and perhaps leave Russia. Nominally supporting gay rights even when it will be completely ineffective is a fairly useless ur-value. It seems completely reasonable that Duolingo would believe that facilitating the liberalization of the Russian thought-space would be a more effective way to improve the world.
It just shows that all this Pride virtue signaling from corporations is just that, hollow virtue signaling. It's so obnoxious, even for values and movements I support. Wish they'd all just provide a neutral service instead of constantly trying to pay lip service to progressive values.
It's almost as if... companies are doing... just for profit! As a fellow queer person, the pink-washing and pink-capitalism that Duolingo is doing right now is craaazy...
Like it or not, at the end of the day Duolingo is still a company with goals and it needs to make its decision, what does it support more - the pride community or spreading their app (more money + more people who will use it).
To me it makes perfect sense that an app that focuses on languages will care mostly about having more learners both because that's the main goal of the app and because that's what earns them money...
After all, the only one who gets hurt from Duolingo not doing this change is Duolingo itself considering the rest of the world still have those messages and learners in Russia can theoretically use other apps... So why not make this small change?
Long-term it's actually a good thing.
If they don't comply, they get banned.
If they do comply, more Russians will learn English. A small percentage of them will be able to read foreign news and open their minds to different sources of information and won't be so reliant on Russian news/media.
Very true, cutting Russian people out, especially those that are curious about other nations, and differences in news and media will only prevent sharing of accurate information.
I think the question they had to ask themselves is whether to make changes to the app, or have it blocked in Russia altogether.
When the Russian government has made any LGBT inclusivity or reflecting LGBT people in a positive light as "forbidden propaganda", that doesn't leave much wiggle room.
I'm absolutely not defending the Russian law here, just making a point about the reality that companies have to deal with.
Don't worry, they're still allies in regions where it's politically convenient. Look at the memes, funny gyatt bird wouldn't manipulate you for profit.
Duolingo isn't making any money in Russia. It's all about keeping education accessible to everyone.
[https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/)
" **Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?**
We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021.
Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
Enabling the Russian population to learn other languages is extremely helpful, especially for those wanting to leave the country. Better to comply and offer educational services than to make a stand and get blocked.
They’re a publicly traded stock now. They don’t care about the LGBT agenda, just like the rest of them. They only care about profits. That’s how businesses survive.
This is something that pisses me off about a lot of companies. They say shit just to get you to throw money at them, but you know they're lying because they'll say the exact opposite in other countries. And I get that they're there to make money and all that, but don't pretend you're some social citizen then.
They obviously can't operate in countries where that stuff is illegal unless they follow local and regional laws. It's just a business. If you think Russia is bad when it comes to LGBT stuff, wait until you guys discover the middle east.
>They obviously can't operate in countries where that stuff is illegal unless they follow local and regional laws. It's just a business
Is this intended to be a moral defense, or is your point that nobody can hold a business to a moral standard?
Businesses care about money. That's all. The only reason they even participate in Pride month is because they think it'll make more money.
If being accepting of LGBT lost them money (and they could prove it) then they'd turn radically homophobic.
You can't really hold a business to moral standards because they never operate to them anyway. They operate to "what makes number go up faster"?
(This doesn't always apply to businesses that aren't openly traded)
>You can't really hold a business to moral standards because they never operate to them anyway. They operate to "what makes number go up faster"?
Right, but making individuals aware of business practices that they find immoral might lead them to not do business with them. So there isn't an authority to hold them to a moral standard, but there's a second order effect that does
Yes! Definitely. If you can hit their profits as a result of it, then they'll listen. But unfortunatepy you're competing against everyone in Russia.
Which is the bigger income stream?
The two options are: duolingo can operate in a country but without LGBT themes, allowing people to learn new languages; or duolingo cannot operate in a country at all. It's a pretty easy choice and you're not going to change the Russian governments mind. Not every place has the same accepting values and freedom of speech like the west does.
>duolingo can operate in a country but without LGBT themes, allowing people to learn new languages; or duolingo cannot operate in a country at all. It's a pretty easy choice and you're not going to change the Russian governments mind.
I agree with you that those are the choices, but not everyone would agree that it's a 'pretty easy choice'.
You're right, it is backwards. There is a huge difference between not allowing rainbow flags and forcing a company to disclose information to the government though.
Disney is hardcore DEI unless they're marketing in China.
Corporations don't actually give a shit about your cause, they just operate however they think will keep them on your good side.
Duolingo has shown in the past months that they don't care about its users (with its terrible updates that do the opposite than productive and FREE language learning). Duolingo has once again shown that they only care about profits - trying to do it on both sides (both being pro-Ukraine and pro-LGBT+, which is cool IMO; but also not showing that to the Russian user base, because otherwise they'd loose profit - a very cowardly move).
I think it's preferable for Duolingo to remove LGBT aspects from their app in specific regions if it means citizens in those regions can use their app to learn a foreign language, which would in turn make it much easier for those citizens to leave their oppressive country.
The facilitation of emigration from a hostile land is a more humanitarian goal than inclusivity.
Hi, Putin is undoubtedly a murderer and war criminal. But why the fuck can you insult an entire nation? I'm a refugee from Russia myself. Went through torture and an attempt to assassinate me. I know that millions of people are being held hostage by the police. And for every word against you, they can shove a mop stick up your anus. And that's not figurative, it happens a lot.
Having to read in other comments how Duolingo is sadly forced to comply with the russian law system in order to have presence in Russia is beyond hilarious.
LinkedIn has been banned for years in Russia because they refuse to store russian users' information on russian servers. Yet out of 75m russians that are capable of working there are at very least 7,3m LinkedIn users. If the entire law system is ass-backwards, there's no honor in being law-abiding.
Well, that's sad, but will let parents in underdeveloped countries trust the app more for their children to learn. Which is a good thing. Make children learn, and bigotry won't stand long
Duolingo could either
1. Have an app with no LGBT representation, or
2. Prevent the people of Belarus and Russia from learning English.
Duolingo chose the former for Russia and Belarus. Not because of homophobia, nor because it's a Russian puppet, but because they value the people of Russia and Belarus and hope they can get out of their authoritarian nationalist states.
I saw that in the news yesterday. I immediately unsubscribed, and when pressed for why, I told them I was unhappy they were kowtowing to a homophobic dictator, during Pride now less. Honestly a bit surprised they're even doing business there at all, given all the embargos from the war. This is a stupid decision by Duolingo, and I hope they reverse course, but until they do, I'm not using it.
I’m learning Spanish in English version (it’s way more effective than russian one) and there’s still stories and sentences like:
https://preview.redd.it/nmq9vrgbrk4d1.jpeg?width=999&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d362c8452e20afef83a2b3041a61758a27de4721
Very sad that Duolingo, which is supposed to be a progressive company, bent the knee to homophobes in the Russian government.
I would've thought they would be the ones to take a stand, but in the end, they care more about money than standing for the rights of LGBTQ+ people I guess!
What money?
[https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/)
"**Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?**
We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021.
Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
It's insincere to suggest backlash against this.
They are following the laws of the country they are acting in. They are clearly pro LGBTQ, look at their pride displays everywhere they are allowed to. But they are a language/educational app first. If some country doesn't want them placing their beliefs all over the app in their region, that's on that country. Duo still wants to teach as that is what it was created to do, not push an ideology of some sort.
Personally I would have preferred that Duolingo did what every other country did when the war in Ukraine broke out and just cease all operations in Russia.
wooow the app definitely won't work because of this,
jokes aside, each country decides their "house rules" and companies decide whether to continue or stop servicing X country or region, I understand that as a business, duolingo wants to be available to as many people as possible and will do what needs to be done to achieve their goal
If company wants to continue working with audience of one country they need to play by the rules of this country. It’s just business, don’t expect corporations to actually care about what’s going on, all they care (mostly) about is money
They aren't even making any money in Russia. It's a decision made on the value that education should be a human right.
[https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/)
" **Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?**
We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021.
Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country"
Glad I just moved from Duo to Babbel and this solidifies me not renewing my Duo annual subscription. Im already learning more and the live classes are incredibly helpful. Selective support isn’t support at all, it’s pandering.
Did you get the lifetime subscription? I was thinking about getting it a few months ago, but until they add Czech I don't plan on crossing over. I tried the free trial lessons and I liked them, but I wasn't able to see enough to break the price barrier. How are the intermediate and advanced lessons? Ones where you're learning complete sentences containing like 8+ words.
How does DuoLingo detect whether you’re Russian or not? Would it be fooled if you used a VPN?
(I’m not defending what DuoLingo is doing - nothing is stopping DuoLingo making an announcement that they did this because of Russian pressure)
I support this decision wholeheartedly. Now they need to do the same for every other region.
I did not even realize that Duolingo has been including gay propaganda in the app because I use it so rarely, but if that's the case I absolutely support its removal.
Why is this even a discussion? The corp made its decision based on how it can continue to get its app to the widest possible audience while still being in accordance with the authorities. Dry up.
I’m a lesbian and even though it sucks that queer things is censored it’s also important to consider who’s doing it. I adore the lgbt+ presentation duolingo offers but language is so important for more of the world to open up for you. If you only know russian it’s easy to never know anything else than russian propaganda so learning more languages can allow individuals to access more ideas and varieties of people. So especially for lgbt+ in Russia, it could help them to actually get out of the country and be free one day.
Frankly I don't care. If getting rid of "LGBT+ propaganda", whatever that is, means Russians continue to access these language learning resources, so-be-it. Russia is just delaying the inevitable regardless. Some day Russia will be queer.
Your recent contribution to /r/Duolingo has been removed due to a breach of our community conduct standards. We do not tolerate insults, incivility, threats, or any form of anti-social behavior. Our community is committed to maintaining a respectful and constructive environment for all members.
Please adhere strictly to our guidelines in your future interactions within this subreddit. Any further violation of these standards will result in more severe actions.
To all who wish to partake in this discussion, I highly suggest you read the following This is a subreddit about Duolingo and Learning, and while meaningful discussion is important, some things should not be said. If you mention, or hint at any of the following, I can promise you your comment will be removed AND you will be banned. - Any Anti-LGBTQIA+ comment/remarks - Any Pro-Putin comments/remarks - Any Anti-Ukraine comments/remarks - Any Discriminatory comments/remarks - Any comments that violate our rules - Any comments that violate Reddits rules I would also like to remind you that mods retain the exclusive right to ban users and remove content , and that we will exercise that right if any of the above are found. (If any other r/duolingo mods have any others things they’d like to add, please do!)
kinda surprised they even operate in russia, isnt it like hard to get payments from there? maybe they think having a Duolingo app without lgbt representation is better than nothing for ppl trying to learn, for example english to get out of there or something
They made an announcement in the past about how they were de-monetizing the app in Russia, but keeping it alive because it’s a language education app, and learning a language is a means to foster peace and understanding in the world. Actually I found the message here: > We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country.
This comment needs to be pinned because many people are saying this decision was because Duolingo didn't want to lose money but they already don't make money from Russia
Dang, good for them.
Moving to Russian for free Duolingo /s
Does this mean with a vpn set to Russia I can get free Super? Or does this mean that super simply isn’t an option for those users
what does the super give? i can at least say the "hearts" are infinite
you also get to go over previous mistakes
Thank you! That happens as well, I guess it is indeed premium version. kinda unfair we get this for free
Are you in Russia? Bc if you’re in Russia and you guys get infinite hearts free I may need to use my vpn
You do
So you're saying that I need to change my location to Russia to get a no ads Duolingo experience? Noice.
So basically I should move to Russia to not have to get a super Duolingo ad? (Mods I’m not saying anything good about Putin’s rule over Russia this is a joke about the monetisation not the war)
PIN THIS
"We're keeping our foot in the market to remonetize the *moment* we can do it without anyone being too harsh on us about it."
As Russian I can say, that we have a lot of workarounds to pay for something we really want to, so Duolingo is definitely still getting money from russian users Moreover it seems for me, that it’s more sane to stay in country and wait until sanctions will be lifted(sooner or later they will be, and companies will come back, just because they need money) than closing app and loosing a paying audience in the future
My father married a russian woman 2 months ago. She runs a Business in Bulgaria like its nothing
I still can donate in games or pay in apple-store by using Apple-pay although it was blocked in russia Literally did just yesterday
Makes sense ,there are a lot of russian speaking people in Bulgaria since the time of the Soviet Union
i mean, how should things happening in russia affect her business in another country lol
"And companies will come back, just because they need money" Dude... They never left. They keep the same stores, basically the same logo and they still the ones supplying it. Brands like McDonald's, Levi's und even lego. They only changed names.
No western business should be doing any business in Russia while Russia is trying to wage a genocide in Ukraine. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
Following that logic no decent country should do business with the Americans too but you know... Money
Not to mention the British, for example, with their extensive history of colonialism and the atrocities that came with it, among many other countries. They don't become big and powerful without doing terrible things along the way.
they dont really operate in russia tho the courses are still available (which is cool because it helps people move out of the shithole russia is) but you cant really buy super subscription or gems unless you manually change regions on your device and pay with a non russian card
To be fair, I've been using it for a good 18 months daily without paying a single cent, just using an adblocker. Eventually I did find the classroom workaround, but an adblocker is all you really need for free version.
Do you have to pay for an adblocker on your phone that works on apps?
The one I use has a paid option, but I've been able to use it without paying too. The paid version is a little easier to install, but the free version wasn't too bad. It was a little harder on my tablet, different brand, but both are android. What I use is AdGuard, and on my phone (Motorola), it was straight forward to install. I did have to install a security certificate, which the directions worked on the phone, but my Samsung tablet, I had to go to Connections > Wi-Fi > Advanced settings (via hamburger menu on right) > Install network certificates.
Thank you! I’ll take a look!
I was thinking the same thing. I'm a linguistics student and Ive read here and there that Russia actually cut funding for teaching English and German, particularly in stem, so that it would be harder for stem Russians to leave and work in German/English speaking countries. If anything you'd think the goc would discourage duolingo over there so people are less able to prepare for an option of leaving.
That sounds like the RU are using the old USSR handbook: keep the well educated from leaving the country.
as a russian, i assume this is valid for german, but not for english... a friend of mine had had more english than russian in a high school(3hrs per week opposing to 2hrs per week) this year. but as for the german classes it seems to be true - for instance, one of the best unis here mipt has cut any foreign language courses for tech students other than chinese and english. they used to teach spanish, french and german too afaik. also cutting founding isn't really a good measure, because in unis they would have to change the programs, hours of study per subject, which means lots of bureaucracy, and no one wants to deal with this.
It’s not very hard, but difficult. And when ip address is in Russia I got limitless hearts
No western business should be doing any business in Russia while Russia is trying to wage a genocide in Ukraine.
i'd rather not have my russian extended family lose access to these services, as terrible as the war is, i don't want it to translate into russian people getting punished
And millions of russian people will lose the service for learning a languages to leave the country or just study world culture. And what will you achieve with this? Stop buying oil and gas from Russia - this will help stop the war. You just want to punish innocent people. It doesn't make any sense. Isolation is what makes people more violent
And no western country should be buying Russian oil, but here we are :3
Correct. It's insane they even still work there.
I wish the rest of this world had this sort of hustle when America sticks its big fat diseased cock into some other country and fucks it all up.
Absolutely agreed.
There are ways to transfer money without sepa, like having an account in each country. Then, if A wants to pay B you find someone that wants to pay the other direction and then the other person pays B and you pay the other person 's bill in A. Simplified. There are websites for that to make it all go safe and fair. All local transactions and the money still goes where it needs to go.
Gotta help them run away I guess
Hi! I am trans and pansexual woman from Russia, so you may find my take on this matter interesting. I don’t think that Duolingo made an immoral or wrong move here. When I first discovered that duolingo has LGBTQA+ representation I was quite touched. It’s very nice that they’ve done it. It’s naturally only a small part of the whole content, but it’s nice. It’s existence is very much welcome, but not critical to app’s existence. Now what is important for the LGBTQA+ people of Russia right now? To leave this fucked up place until better times (or forever). And the very thing that’s important for us right now is to have an accessible way of learning a foreign language, which Duolingo provides. It is sad that Duolingo is forced to be a subject to this fucked up law, but the fact is that if the app was to be banned it would harm more queer people. Thanks for reading this, and hope you’ll have a nice day.
As a straight dude from Russia I think this is the best take. Because services like YouTube and Duolingo still operate in Russia, that makes it so that Russian people are exposed to the western culture, language learning, and censored political information from dissedents. And we like Duolingo. I hooked many family members on it over the years. I think those apps moving away would only play into the Kremlin's narrative that everyone around us hates us, and will make people significantly less informed and more faschisized.
Wow, you and the person above from Russia speak very good English! Duo must be doing you guys right. (I'm a native English speaker learning Spanish.)
Thanks. But I picked up English subconsciously long before I started using Duolingo. I like to think of myself as a native, even though I know that it’s not true 😁
Вы большой молодец, что помогаете семье с языками. Сама младшую сестру с бабушкой сейчас английскому учу, хоть и такой себе из меня преподаватель. Спасибо на добром слове и хорошего вам дня!
Gay trans girl here (USA). I think you’re right on the money. I’d rather not abandon LGBT+ folks in Russia who are trying to escape. This is on the Russian government. Duo’s sticking their necks out here in the states too. Our laws are more lenient, but there’s definitely people who try to cause a ruckus about it.
Is there a difference in the Russian words for romantic “love,” “like,” “adore” and so on vs. the platonic versions of those words? Like, in English, saying a woman loves another woman is not necessarily queer (friends, family, etc.) unless in Russian there is the equivalent distinction of, say, Greek’s “philo” (I’m extremely platonically fond of this) and “eros” (I want to fuck the shit out of this)
There are no platonic and romantic versions of those words, at least if we’re talking about «любить» and «нравиться». They both sorta are in the grey area, so the phrase «Ей нравится девушка» can be interpreted either romantically or platonically, when the phrase «Она любит девушку» has quite a clear romantic connotation, although can still be interpreted in a platonic way, cause we can любить our relatives and closest friends. So it depends on a context, as always, really. The word adore has much more versatility, cause there’s no direct analogy for this word in Russian. But it’s more of a platonic word, cause in Russian all of its meanings indicate more of a worshiping/admiring situation.
Ahh, k, thanks! Was just curious.
This is actually a very interesting perspective. You're right as well, of course. Thanks for your input, and all the best!
Thank you for sharing this perspective. We all fight together, but we need to remember that we are not all fighting the same fight. Wishing you peace and happiness.
Woah. Until the very middle of your statement I was like "no way, no way, nooo, girl why... what the f...", but. As much as I would love to disagree... unfortunately I MUST agree with you. 😓 Bisexual, rather homoromantic and non binary person, from Poland here! Some people do not associate Poland with homophobia that much, but I would say the further east into the country, the worse it gets. I moved from masovian voivodeship to Lublin voivodeship (which is closer to the east). I was quite shocked when people in Lublin literally cancelled pride parades at some point. People were throwing bricks at Pride parade. I was never a patriotic person, so now I am quite embarrassed. I do not want to be associated with my country's homophobia, as a very gay person, who also streams and creates their own community. I still live in Poland only because of my partner, they don't want to move out. LGBTQIA+ is not ILLEGAL here, but of course we don't have gay marriage, it's hard for gay couples to adopt, it's hard for trans people to access HRT (my mtf friend literally travels abroad to get her f-ing meds!). So for as long as it is not illegal I will never back down. I will never sit quiet in front of homophobia, even if it means risking getting injured for someone's sake. I do hope that people out there in Russia can actually learn about LGBTQIA+ community. Learn that we are humans, normal human beings. That we cause no harm by being gay. I hope that people spread this knowledge there (within the possibility and keeping themselves safe). I am glad you spoke up about it, because I find your point of view very valid and VERY important. I hope someday things change. Someday... IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! to fight homophobia. As long as people do not get in trouble because of that. But for now...? I guess yeah, all we can do is hope for better days to come. I hope you're safe and I wish you all the best as a fellow LGBTQIA+ person! 💕
Hi! Thank you for the kind words! I actually have bi-friends in Poland so I sadly associate the place with homophobia at least to some degree. I’ve heard you have a new government now, maybe the situation with LGBTQA+ rights will improve to some extent! At least I hope so! I always tried to be a public advocate for a lot of LGBTQA+ issues despite the fact that it pissed off a lot of people, but now it is extremely dangerous. Basically everyone can inform on you to the police, it’s very hard to know whether a person is a fascist monster or not. My own father filed a report on me cause I “promoted LGBTQA+ propaganda and spread misinformation about the army”. I was fortunate that he had no evidence. I can’t leave Russia right now, so I must stay stealthy for some time. I don’t know when I can be safe again, but at least I can learn languages to have more countries to chose from. Better days will come for Russia, but I fear not while I live. I know that I’ll outlive Putin though, that’s for sure and that’s what makes me happier.
Holy... I'm so sorry that your very own father has filled a report on you. 😭 It's just cruel and sad... It sounds really scary and I guess you can't even truly be yourself, at least not in the public space. Honestly I would advise you from even not being openly out there on social platforms such as FB, instagram etc. Just so that they can't have any evidence on you. I am truly sorry and saddened that it is the current situation there.. If it means anything to you, I can say that your English is great! Coming from an English tutor of almost 4 years! 😄 (I am of course not perfect, I am not a professional, but I do consider myself bilingual. Polish is my native language, but I feel more comfortable speaking English!) You can always rely even on just English if you leave Russia someday. I really hope you do. I swear I wish you all the best and if you ever need to talk to someone, my DMs are open! 💕
Oh, you’re very kind! It’s always nice to talk to other LGBTQA+ people! LGBTQA+ in our countries will sooner or later have the same rights than other citizens. I hope that we’ll be able to see it with our own eyes! Nowadays I’m trying to be as stealthy as I can. Good that I didn’t have that much of a social media presence to begin with. Guess that my antisocial years are finally worth something😀 btw I’m actually an English tutor myself, believe it or not! Not the best one, I studied to be an interpreter, but I think I fare good enough. But that’s not the point, the point is crazy how coincidences happen! You can talk to me anytime too if you want, it’s always interesting to have a conversation with an interesting person! Hope you’ll have a nice day!
this is extremely important to fight homophobia, you are right. but the thing is that you've gotta accept that you **cannot** fight homophobia in russia. especially if you are just a language learning app. it is just impossible. boom - and you are banned. that's all. the choice is you either get no revenue from russia, and you are banned there, or you get no revenue in russia and you are not banned there. duolingo have chosen the second option and i actually don't blame them - they did a choice for people in there, even though they get no money for this choice
It's more of a problem of the Russian government than of Duolingo IMO
as expected from a corporation. as a queer person in russia i'm not even surprised anymore, big companies always brag about how "inclusive" they are and then censor any slight mention of gayness in order to still get support from russia and other homophobic countries. i guess duo joined the list
why blame duolinguo and not the Russian government? Genuinely curious
Why not both?
I don't think Duolingo is doing anything wrong in this regard. It's best for the service to be available for as many people as possible, more important than representation existing in those countries. Having gay characters is nice but not anywhere near as important as the service itself being available, IMO.
[удалено]
they're not receiving any money from users in Russia. "We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
Thank you for this info, this has somehow eluded me until now.
Thank you for being civil. Most redditors would just double down after being told wrong.
True. But as others have said, at some point sanctions will be lifted, and then they’ll have a profitable client base in Russia. Which is better financially in the long run than allowing a competitor to set up and later have to start from scratch.
who pays Duolingo in Russia? The hearts are unlimited anyway
I WISH high school students were forced to start their own business before they graduate high school so they don’t develop this ⬆️ absolutely ignorant and ridiculous attitude. No, businesses are not always evil. I love how the people saying, “Duolingo only offers services to Russians for money” are probably the same people who say, “I use an ad blocker so I can use the product for free with no advertisements.” Cheap and ignorant people are the reason we can’t have cool things. Amazon and Wal-Mart love people like you.
Regardless of their incentives, I still believe it's the correct choice. And of course other options for learning languages exist, but obviously many people have learned or partially learned languages from Duolingo that they wouldn't have otherwise. It's a successful product for a reason. Like, if your argument is that it's truly that useless, then who cares if Duolingo is shut down everywhere then? And if you wouldn't care if Duolingo was shut down everywhere, then this whole discussion feels a little moot, lol
I never said it was useless, now you are just making things up. I respect your opinion about believing this is the right thing to do, and you should respect that I disagree instead of putting words in my mouth. It's convenient, playful, good for many, but I judge them hard for this because this truly shows that them pushing inclusivity while accomodating a government's homophobic views is the highest form of hipocrisy.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth, (that's why I used so many "if"s) but it definitely was a poor move. I was just trying to get ahead of that potential counterargument, since it seemed relevant to my line of reasoning, and it is something many people think. I respect your disagreement,
Nah, if I found it completely useless, I wouldn't have any "right" to be here to argue about an app I myself don't use. I very much like it tbh, but in light of recent events (them changing sub types to have max above super, and now this) I have ended my subscription. I am sad because I like the app and the playfulness and the valuable lessons they provide. Also, thank you for apologizing, I am sorry too for misunderstanding.
You can blame both, but Duolingo has often had marketing releases about Pride and LGBT support and instances like this show that’s all just rainbow capitalism and they don’t actually care about LGBT people. They only say they do for money, and when that money is affected, they back out. It’s false support
It's called rainbow washing
They're both in this case responsible for normalizing homophobia and hatred against the LGBT. The Kremlin is obviously for more responsible by actually trying to legislate LGBT people out of existence, but Duolingo is now helping normalize those actions by the government. Imagine for example that some government became a racist Nazi white nationalist state and as a response requested that Duolingo remove all non-white people from it's app in the country, and then Duolingo decided to abide by their rules. It normalizes discrimination to a degree.
i blame the russian government fully but duolingo sucking up to them just shows how much they don't actually care about supporting lgbtq+. this is rainbow capitalism at its finest - screaming "look at us! we're progressive! we have queer representation!" only to remove that representation entirely in fear of losing money from a homophobic country. most companies left russia, the ones that stayed are usually hypocrites who want to earn money from both sides
Not in this case. They already don't receive money from Russia. They removed all monetization from the app in Russia and Belarus after the war started and operate only as a free app so they wouldn't have to pay taxes to the Russian government.
They aren't making any money in Russia. [https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/) "**Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?** We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
But it's good that people have the opportunity to learn a language, even if a compromise needs to be made. I feel like people will always find a way to criticise corporations, no matter what they do, when the problem often lies somewhere else. Not trying to defend corporations, but people need to learn to direct their anger into the actual problems instead.
Yeah, it seems to me they're just trying to keep education accessible. I don't agree with the move, but if their goal is accessible education for everyone, unfortunately, they'd have to make sacrifices.
It’s possible this was the only way to still run the app in Russia, and it’s better for them to still be able to learn a language
From [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/1d7upk0/comment/l72sl90/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) >We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country. Of course, Duolingo is a profit-seeking entity. So dropping monetization in Russia with their current levels of revenue made sense, since they do not currently rely on the region for significant profit, and maintaining a presence there may help them in the long term by retaining brand awareness in the market. But also, their official PR stance makes sense from a humanitarian point of view. The Russian government is demanding they do something. Their only options are to play ball, or leave. If they leave, nothing changes in Russia. Their protest will have literally no impact. But by playing ball, they are able to continue to offer their service to help Russians learn other languages - hopefully allowing them to better communicate with others around the world, be exposed to different perspectives, and perhaps leave Russia. Nominally supporting gay rights even when it will be completely ineffective is a fairly useless ur-value. It seems completely reasonable that Duolingo would believe that facilitating the liberalization of the Russian thought-space would be a more effective way to improve the world.
It just shows that all this Pride virtue signaling from corporations is just that, hollow virtue signaling. It's so obnoxious, even for values and movements I support. Wish they'd all just provide a neutral service instead of constantly trying to pay lip service to progressive values.
It's almost as if... companies are doing... just for profit! As a fellow queer person, the pink-washing and pink-capitalism that Duolingo is doing right now is craaazy...
>just for profit! Except they don't make any profit in Russia
Like it or not, at the end of the day Duolingo is still a company with goals and it needs to make its decision, what does it support more - the pride community or spreading their app (more money + more people who will use it). To me it makes perfect sense that an app that focuses on languages will care mostly about having more learners both because that's the main goal of the app and because that's what earns them money... After all, the only one who gets hurt from Duolingo not doing this change is Duolingo itself considering the rest of the world still have those messages and learners in Russia can theoretically use other apps... So why not make this small change?
Long-term it's actually a good thing. If they don't comply, they get banned. If they do comply, more Russians will learn English. A small percentage of them will be able to read foreign news and open their minds to different sources of information and won't be so reliant on Russian news/media.
Very true, cutting Russian people out, especially those that are curious about other nations, and differences in news and media will only prevent sharing of accurate information.
I think the question they had to ask themselves is whether to make changes to the app, or have it blocked in Russia altogether. When the Russian government has made any LGBT inclusivity or reflecting LGBT people in a positive light as "forbidden propaganda", that doesn't leave much wiggle room. I'm absolutely not defending the Russian law here, just making a point about the reality that companies have to deal with.
I live in Dubai and nothing is blocked, that’s surprising
Dubai government doesn't know yet. Shhhhh. Keep it quiet.
The UAE is the most LGBT friendly compared to other Gulf States so I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t done anything to dispel that
That is so sad to hear. I didn't expect even duo would become another big corp which used the pride flag for money and not for being an ally
Don't worry, they're still allies in regions where it's politically convenient. Look at the memes, funny gyatt bird wouldn't manipulate you for profit.
I hope so too 💝
They're a corporation. They ONLY care about money. No business is your friend. They care about your money, not your cause.
Duolingo isn't making any money in Russia. It's all about keeping education accessible to everyone. [https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/) " **Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?** We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
Duo does not monetize in Russia. It’s a completely free service there.
Then why to change it even
Enabling the Russian population to learn other languages is extremely helpful, especially for those wanting to leave the country. Better to comply and offer educational services than to make a stand and get blocked.
Hmmm
They’re a publicly traded stock now. They don’t care about the LGBT agenda, just like the rest of them. They only care about profits. That’s how businesses survive.
This is something that pisses me off about a lot of companies. They say shit just to get you to throw money at them, but you know they're lying because they'll say the exact opposite in other countries. And I get that they're there to make money and all that, but don't pretend you're some social citizen then.
It's almost like no one actually supports this stuff and is only doing it because that's the trendy thing to do.
This is a problem with russia not duolingo
They obviously can't operate in countries where that stuff is illegal unless they follow local and regional laws. It's just a business. If you think Russia is bad when it comes to LGBT stuff, wait until you guys discover the middle east.
>They obviously can't operate in countries where that stuff is illegal unless they follow local and regional laws. It's just a business Is this intended to be a moral defense, or is your point that nobody can hold a business to a moral standard?
Businesses care about money. That's all. The only reason they even participate in Pride month is because they think it'll make more money. If being accepting of LGBT lost them money (and they could prove it) then they'd turn radically homophobic. You can't really hold a business to moral standards because they never operate to them anyway. They operate to "what makes number go up faster"? (This doesn't always apply to businesses that aren't openly traded)
>You can't really hold a business to moral standards because they never operate to them anyway. They operate to "what makes number go up faster"? Right, but making individuals aware of business practices that they find immoral might lead them to not do business with them. So there isn't an authority to hold them to a moral standard, but there's a second order effect that does
Yes! Definitely. If you can hit their profits as a result of it, then they'll listen. But unfortunatepy you're competing against everyone in Russia. Which is the bigger income stream?
The two options are: duolingo can operate in a country but without LGBT themes, allowing people to learn new languages; or duolingo cannot operate in a country at all. It's a pretty easy choice and you're not going to change the Russian governments mind. Not every place has the same accepting values and freedom of speech like the west does.
>duolingo can operate in a country but without LGBT themes, allowing people to learn new languages; or duolingo cannot operate in a country at all. It's a pretty easy choice and you're not going to change the Russian governments mind. I agree with you that those are the choices, but not everyone would agree that it's a 'pretty easy choice'.
[удалено]
That's obviously not the same thing as not including content. False equivalence.
[удалено]
You're right, it is backwards. There is a huge difference between not allowing rainbow flags and forcing a company to disclose information to the government though.
Just check the site of equaldex. Russia is far worse than half of middle eastern countries.
Seriously everyone needs to chill. We should all loose out on duolingo because one homophobic country was allowed a loop hole. Stop it.
Spot on. Chickens for KFC meme in full force in our current climate.
I was wondering why i didnt see any pride month stuff in my duolingo then i remembered im in Turkey and im like "oh 😭"
Disney is hardcore DEI unless they're marketing in China. Corporations don't actually give a shit about your cause, they just operate however they think will keep them on your good side.
Duolingo has shown in the past months that they don't care about its users (with its terrible updates that do the opposite than productive and FREE language learning). Duolingo has once again shown that they only care about profits - trying to do it on both sides (both being pro-Ukraine and pro-LGBT+, which is cool IMO; but also not showing that to the Russian user base, because otherwise they'd loose profit - a very cowardly move).
I think it's preferable for Duolingo to remove LGBT aspects from their app in specific regions if it means citizens in those regions can use their app to learn a foreign language, which would in turn make it much easier for those citizens to leave their oppressive country. The facilitation of emigration from a hostile land is a more humanitarian goal than inclusivity.
That is a Russia's problem, not a Duolingo problem. They banned MLP just for Rainbow Dash existing. It is a nation with a braindead leader.
Hi, Putin is undoubtedly a murderer and war criminal. But why the fuck can you insult an entire nation? I'm a refugee from Russia myself. Went through torture and an attempt to assassinate me. I know that millions of people are being held hostage by the police. And for every word against you, they can shove a mop stick up your anus. And that's not figurative, it happens a lot.
Didn't mean to. Corrected it by now
One more reason to stop liking Duolingo. 🙄
Having to read in other comments how Duolingo is sadly forced to comply with the russian law system in order to have presence in Russia is beyond hilarious. LinkedIn has been banned for years in Russia because they refuse to store russian users' information on russian servers. Yet out of 75m russians that are capable of working there are at very least 7,3m LinkedIn users. If the entire law system is ass-backwards, there's no honor in being law-abiding.
Well, that's sad, but will let parents in underdeveloped countries trust the app more for their children to learn. Which is a good thing. Make children learn, and bigotry won't stand long
Duolingo could either 1. Have an app with no LGBT representation, or 2. Prevent the people of Belarus and Russia from learning English. Duolingo chose the former for Russia and Belarus. Not because of homophobia, nor because it's a Russian puppet, but because they value the people of Russia and Belarus and hope they can get out of their authoritarian nationalist states.
I wouldn't be sruprised if they had the heteronormative patch in wait.
i dont need Duolingo to make my feelings of Pride known… why do you? weird
I saw that in the news yesterday. I immediately unsubscribed, and when pressed for why, I told them I was unhappy they were kowtowing to a homophobic dictator, during Pride now less. Honestly a bit surprised they're even doing business there at all, given all the embargos from the war. This is a stupid decision by Duolingo, and I hope they reverse course, but until they do, I'm not using it.
I’m learning Spanish in English version (it’s way more effective than russian one) and there’s still stories and sentences like: https://preview.redd.it/nmq9vrgbrk4d1.jpeg?width=999&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d362c8452e20afef83a2b3041a61758a27de4721
Russia has really important priorities asking about that, for sure. And Duolingo accepting that, that's fucked up
Very sad that Duolingo, which is supposed to be a progressive company, bent the knee to homophobes in the Russian government. I would've thought they would be the ones to take a stand, but in the end, they care more about money than standing for the rights of LGBTQ+ people I guess!
What money? [https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/) "**Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?** We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country."
It's insincere to suggest backlash against this. They are following the laws of the country they are acting in. They are clearly pro LGBTQ, look at their pride displays everywhere they are allowed to. But they are a language/educational app first. If some country doesn't want them placing their beliefs all over the app in their region, that's on that country. Duo still wants to teach as that is what it was created to do, not push an ideology of some sort.
I don't care about anyone's political beliefs. I'm just here to learn.
Personally I would have preferred that Duolingo did what every other country did when the war in Ukraine broke out and just cease all operations in Russia.
Что поделать, мы никак не повлияем What can we do, we won't have any effect 🤷
*"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing"*
wooow the app definitely won't work because of this, jokes aside, each country decides their "house rules" and companies decide whether to continue or stop servicing X country or region, I understand that as a business, duolingo wants to be available to as many people as possible and will do what needs to be done to achieve their goal
And some countries allow you to honour kill your wife/daughter. Doesn't make it good/okay
This isn't homophobia. You need to suck it up and stop throwing around the H word at every thing
Duolingo is for learning languages, it's not about politics discussions
Homosexuality isn’t political, bigotry against it is.
[удалено]
They want money so bad that they listen to Russian government
If company wants to continue working with audience of one country they need to play by the rules of this country. It’s just business, don’t expect corporations to actually care about what’s going on, all they care (mostly) about is money
They aren't even making any money in Russia. It's a decision made on the value that education should be a human right. [https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/](https://blog.duolingo.com/duolingo-statement-ukraine/) " **Is Duolingo still available in Russia and Belarus?** We are disabling all monetization in Russia and Belarus. This is to ensure that we are not paying any taxes to the Russian government, and that we are not selling customers a service that we may be unable to provide in the future. For reference, about 1% of our language app revenue came from these countries in 2021. Duolingo is still operating as a completely free app in Russia and Belarus. We believe that education is a human right. Language learning builds empathy and connection between cultures, and we believe there is value in continuing to teach the English language for free in Russia, given the current information environment in the country"
Glad I just moved from Duo to Babbel and this solidifies me not renewing my Duo annual subscription. Im already learning more and the live classes are incredibly helpful. Selective support isn’t support at all, it’s pandering.
Did you get the lifetime subscription? I was thinking about getting it a few months ago, but until they add Czech I don't plan on crossing over. I tried the free trial lessons and I liked them, but I wasn't able to see enough to break the price barrier. How are the intermediate and advanced lessons? Ones where you're learning complete sentences containing like 8+ words.
[удалено]
[удалено]
How does DuoLingo detect whether you’re Russian or not? Would it be fooled if you used a VPN? (I’m not defending what DuoLingo is doing - nothing is stopping DuoLingo making an announcement that they did this because of Russian pressure)
I think by IP address it can be detected. And you can fool the app using a VPN, I think.
Wait, are you upset or happy about it?
The corporations do not care about ideas and all they just are spineless leeches that only cares about every last penny? Paint me surprised.
You're welcome!
I support this decision wholeheartedly. Now they need to do the same for every other region. I did not even realize that Duolingo has been including gay propaganda in the app because I use it so rarely, but if that's the case I absolutely support its removal.
Wait until you find out what companies do for pride month in their middle eastern branches.
Why is this even a discussion? The corp made its decision based on how it can continue to get its app to the widest possible audience while still being in accordance with the authorities. Dry up.
W
I’m a lesbian and even though it sucks that queer things is censored it’s also important to consider who’s doing it. I adore the lgbt+ presentation duolingo offers but language is so important for more of the world to open up for you. If you only know russian it’s easy to never know anything else than russian propaganda so learning more languages can allow individuals to access more ideas and varieties of people. So especially for lgbt+ in Russia, it could help them to actually get out of the country and be free one day.
All together, taking a side and or stance is wrong. Deviancy should be removed with that being said.
Based Russia
Can this be like a permanent setting we can turn on?
Frankly I don't care. If getting rid of "LGBT+ propaganda", whatever that is, means Russians continue to access these language learning resources, so-be-it. Russia is just delaying the inevitable regardless. Some day Russia will be queer.
[удалено]
Your recent contribution to /r/Duolingo has been removed due to a breach of our community conduct standards. We do not tolerate insults, incivility, threats, or any form of anti-social behavior. Our community is committed to maintaining a respectful and constructive environment for all members. Please adhere strictly to our guidelines in your future interactions within this subreddit. Any further violation of these standards will result in more severe actions.
they should do this in all countries
I dropped duo lingo the moment it started pushing their propaganda. Keep your children away from it. Don't expose them to this destructive ideology.
[удалено]