Google, Meta, and TikTok take down pages of Russian factory recruiting foreign women for drone production

The Associated Press reported the information.

Posts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok were removed following an investigation published by the agency on October 10. The report detailed the working conditions at the Alabuga drone manufacturing plant, which is currently under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the UK.

The authors highlight that in videos and social media posts, young women—primarily from Africa—were promised free plane tickets to Russia and salaries exceeding $500 a month through the Start from Alabuga program.

However, instead of participating in an internship program focused on the hotel, restaurant, and catering industries, many women discovered only upon arriving in Tatarstan that they would be working at a weapons factory, assembling thousands of Iranian attack drones intended for deployment in Ukraine.

In interviews with the Associated Press, some women who worked at the complex complained of long hours under constant supervision, unfulfilled promises of pay and training, and working with harsh chemicals that left stains on their skin and caused itching.

The tech companies also reportedly deleted the accounts of the Alabuga Polytechnic Institute, a vocational boarding school whose graduates are considered experts in drone production.

In total, the accounts had at least 158,344 followers, and one of the TikTok pages had more than a million likes.

• Approximately 200 African women are currently employed at a Russian plant in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, where drones are manufactured. According to these women, they were misled into accepting jobs at the facility by Russia.