Today in the FinTech Ukraine Daily: Airbnb, Utah Jazz Foundation Team to Provide Housing for Ukrainian Refugees

The Utah Jazz Foundation is partnering with Airbnb.org, a nonprofit that provides temporary stays for people in crisis, to  provide housing to refugees fleeing Ukraine, Airbnb announced Wednesday (March 9).

The commitment will support Airbnb’s initiative to offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing from Ukraine into Poland, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and other surrounding countries. Utah Jazz’s donation is expected to fund more than 32,200 nights of housing for Ukrainian refugees.

In other news, Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of bunq, the Amsterdam-based challenger bank, posted a LinkedIn message in response to the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, according to SiliconCanals.com.

Support through the message has soared and it has led to the establishment of People for People, a nonprofit that provides aid for victims of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

To reduce the spread of misinformation and protect privacy, Instagram is hiding information about who users are following, and people who are following each other on private accounts in Russia and Ukraine, Meta Platforms, Instagram’s parent company announced. The social network company has notified private accounts in Ukraine and Russia about the change.

“We’re also not showing these accounts in other people’s followers or following lists, or in our mutual follows feature,” Meta Platforms said in a statement.

Also in the news, Shopify Inc. will not collect fees from its Ukrainian merchants and partners, the Canadian multinational eCommerce company announced. With millions of Ukrainian refugees in desperate need of support, Shopify said it will contribute to humanitarian aid through its partner, Flexport. Shopify will also match employee donations supporting this relief effort.

In addition, the company suspended operations in Russia and Belarus and said it will continue to monitor events and comply with applicable sanctions.