GitHub began restricting access to users in territories subject to US sanctions.

GitHub has released a new edition of the rules governing compliance with U.S. export regulations. regulate restrictions on private deposits and corporate accounts of companies operating in the territories subject to sanctions (Iran, Cuba, Syria, Sudan, North Korea), but so far they have not been applied to individual developers of non-commercial projects.

The new edition of the rules contains an explanation indicating the possibility of limiting the work of public services for individual users located in the sanctions territories.

For these users it is recommended to use the platform only for personal communications.

Besides changing the rules, GitHub also began in practice to restrict access to its services to non-commercial users from sanctioned countries.

This was unveiled since in one of the reports of a user of the web hosting service and software management of GameHub on Linux I report on it.

The application is used to centralize in one library all Steam, GoG, Humble Bundle, Humble Trove and locally installed games independently. Thanks to GameHub, you can see at a glance, download, install, uninstall and launch games, but also bonuses or GoG DLC.

“My account has been blocked due to the United States sanctions. You may not be able to keep GameHub in the future, "it says in a recently opened ticket on the platform.

This state of affairs has generated a lot of interest in the developer community and has pushed some to fully migrate to the platform. This is what confirms Ahmed Saeedi Fard, who, as the maintainer of GameHub, now has some of his private repositories locked.

With this, the possibility of creating public repositories was left. To remove the restrictions, it was proposed to provide proof that the user does not live in Crimea, but Kashkin is a citizen of the Russian Federation residing and registered in Crimea, so it is impossible to submit an appeal.

“GitHub has been a free platform for everyone for many years, but it has decided to block Iranian accounts. I think being a country is not an option, but being a developer and contributing to the open source community is an option. GitHub prohibits our freedom to contribute and be part of the open source ecosystem because we live in Iran.

GitHub has locked our private repositories without warning and now we don't have access to the codes. You should not judge people based on their country of origin. You can restrict a government, but you must not ban its active and loyal users without notice.

I think having a simple GitHub page is a fundamental right for users. Don't put us out of the open source community, ”he said.

Similar restrictions applied to many individual Iranian developers, which also had blocked free private deposits and closed pages on GitHub Pages.

Services were blocked without prior notice and without providing an opportunity to back up (including the technical support service refuses to provide current details of the blocked services). At the same time, access to public repositories is provided to everyone without any changes.

These measures they can rightly be considered as an extension of those derived from the trade war between the United States and China.

In fact, in mid-May, President Donald Trump signed a decree that lays the groundwork to prevent Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei from selling equipment in the United States.

The goal of the move is to neutralize China's ability to compromise US wireless networks.

And next-generation computer systems. The order prohibits the purchase or use of any communication technology produced by entities controlled by a "foreign opponent" that could sabotage US communications systems or create "catastrophic effects" on US infrastructure.