"Yellow Ribbon" has restricted the chatbot's operations following an investigation into the safety of activists

The "Yellow Ribbon" resistance movement has updated its "Together" chatbot, retaining only safety instructions for residents of temporarily occupied territories in its functionality. This decision was made to ensure maximum safety for citizens and enhance user protection. 

According to a statement on the movement’s Telegram channel, the tool will soon be completely redesigned for new tasks.

The changes came after the publication of an investigation by the Kyiv Independent, which reported that the format of the proposed tasks was putting activists from the “Yellow Ribbon” and “Zla Mavka” movements at risk. Journalists argued that recruitment via an unencrypted chatbot and requests to photograph pro-Ukrainian symbols or burn Russian flags in public places were risky. In particular, the article mentioned the case of an activist’s detention in occupied Melitopol, who was identified using surveillance cameras and geolocation of photos.

Representatives of the movement denied reports of torture or killings of activists in recent years and noted that pro-Ukrainian actions in the temporarily occupied territories do not constitute a criminal offense even under Russian law. At the same time, Anna Shelest, chair of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Institute, called the article a devaluation of the struggle of Ukrainians under occupation, although she partially agreed with the criticism of certain points. The Kyiv Independent editorial team emphasized that the purpose of the publication was to highlight the disregard for the safety of people participating in resistance movements.

Earlier, the “Yellow Ribbon” movement reported that Russian invaders in the temporarily occupied Crimea had scaled up a campaign to recruit the local population into the ranks of the aggressor’s army. And the Russian occupation administration introduced mandatory quotas for recruiting students from higher education institutions into the ranks of the Russian army.