Blocking users from Ukraine: Upwork exchange reveals the reason
Freelance platform Upwork is aware of the problem of blocking accounts of Ukrainian users and is checking information about the victims.
As Upwork told Forbes Ukraine, access to an account may be restricted due to suspicion that the user is in a territory subject to geographical sanctions.
Upwork's response to the publication's request said that the company is reviewing the relevant accounts, and preliminary results indicate various reasons for suspending accounts: reasons related to identity verification, IP address, and location.
It is noted that access to the account may be restricted due to suspicion that the user is in a territory subject to geographical sanctions. "This usually means the territory occupied by Russia, including the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Although it may be difficult to determine with certainty whether the user has changed their place of residence," the freelance platform Upwork reported.
The company also advised users to contact support to verify their new location. The publication notes that Upwork has implemented new, aggressive fraud prevention measures in general. This may lead to an increase in the number of blocked profiles around the world.
Ukrainian freelancers actively use the Upwork exchange to find work. Recently, they began to complain on social networks about their accounts being blocked.
"In three months, three of my profiles, registered in 2017-2019, were banned. Each earned $200,000-400,000, rating 98 out of 100," one of the blocked users told the publication, anonymously due to the sensitivity of disclosing financial figures. The official reason is suspicious activity that violates the site's rules. "All verifications passed, but they still got banned," he added.
It is reported that the founder of the company Serverless Team and former community manager of the Upwork platform Kyrylo Kozak has collected at least 150 cases of blocked users of the platform from Ukraine. He began this work at the request of the Ministry of Digital Affairs after Ukrainian Upwork clients began to complain en masse about blocking accounts. The platform allows for the possibility of restrictions, but denied targeted actions against Ukrainian users.
Let us remind you that Upwork is the largest labor exchange that unites millions of companies with independent specialists. There are orders there in the field of programming, design, marketing, business analysis, etc. The platform's website states that Ukraine is one of the leading markets for freelance projects on Upwork. It displays thousands of profiles belonging to Ukrainians. The platform takes a commission for mediation. According to Kyrylo Kozak, the commission can reach up to 15% for each transaction. "They earn hundreds of millions of dollars in Ukraine per year," said the former Upwork manager.