GitHub starts blocking developers in countries facing US trade sanctions
Found on ZD Net on Saturday, 27 July 2019
There's a debate over free speech taking place after Microsoft-owned GitHub "restricted" the account of a developer based in the Crimea region of Ukraine, who used the service to host his website and gaming software.
Kashkin says GitHub advised him this week that it had restricted his account, pointing to its page about US trade controls, which lists Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria as countries facing US sanctions.
As GitHub notes on its page about US trade controls, US sanctions apply to its online hosting service, GitHub.com, but its paid-for on-premise software -- aimed at enterprise users -- may be an option for users in those circumstances.
So because of an annextation by Russia, Crimea is now facing an embargo. This raises the question if annexed territories are generally a target for embargos; because if so then for example Hawaii would also have to be on that list since the US annexed the former republic. Anoother question is how serious such embargos really are if they can be avoided when you hand over money; but that's probably how it always works...