Developers in sanctioned countries could lose access to one of the most valuable tools of their trade.
GitHub, a popular code hosting website recently acquired by Microsoft, will block users from Iran, Crimea, Cuba, North Korea and Syria among other blacklisted countries.
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman tweeted that much like other companies with operations in the US it is mandated to comply with the U.S export law.
Slack, which recently IPO’d, also enforced similar restrictions on its workplace collaboration platform.
According to a statement by the company on its website, all users will have access to public repos, “This includes limited access to GitHub public repository services (such as access to GitHub Pages and public repositories used for open source projects), for personal communications only, and not for commercial purposes.”
However, the enforcement will prevent users in those countries from accessing private repositories and GitHub Marketplace, as well as maintaining private paid organization accounts.
In the past week, several developers reported trouble accessing some of Gitub’s services.
Some developers complained they had been blocked without notice, and had not been provided with an alternative option to back up their data.
Github’s approach to blocking users is based on a user’s location – by tracking their IP address and payment history, rather than by validating their nationality and ethnicity.
Related article: Microsoft buys Github for $7.5B
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are a common workaround to such problems, however, Github has ruled out this possibility saying, people in sanctioned countries are quote, “prohibited from using IP proxies, VPNs, or other methods to disguise their location when accessing GitHub.com services.”
It is unclear as to how GitHub will follow through on this rule.
Users whose accounts have been wrongfully suspended can fill out an appeal form, where they are required to produce a copy of their government-issued photo ID to prove their current residency along with a selfie, signaling GitHub’s step towards imposing real-name identity check.
