A developer based in Crimea and one based in Iran say that GitHub has “restricted” their accounts “due to US trade controls”
Tip: You can use this extension … Troy Wolverton / Business Insider : GitHub is reportedly blocking access to its site for users in places like Crimea and Iran, which are under US sanctions Joe Fay / DEVCLASS : GitHub cuts off Crimean dev as US trade sanctions bite on tech providers Trustnodes : Github Bans Iranians BeauHD / Slashdot : GitHub Starts Blocking Developers In Countries Facing US Trade Sanctions Atiya / MSPoweruser : Developer: “GitHub blocked my account and they think I'm developing nuclear weapons” Tweets: Nat Friedman / @natfriedman : The restrictions are based on place of residence and location, not on nationality or heritage. If someone was flagged in error, they can fill out a form to get the restrictions lifted on their account within hours. More info is on our policy page: https://help.github.com/... Nat Friedman / @natfriedman : Users with restricted private repos can also choose to make them public. Our understanding of the law does not give us the option to give anyone advance notice of restrictions. Nat Friedman / @natfriedman : We're not doing this because we want to; we're doing it because we have to. GitHub will continue to advocate vigorously with governments around the world for policies that protect software developers and the global open source community. @githubhelp : @erfannoury 2/2 If a user believes that they have been flagged in error, then that user has the opportunity to appeal the flag by providing verification information to GitHub. Please see our FAQ for the appeals request form. https://help.github.com/... - AG John W. / @_johnwhelan : The world needs a decentralized code repo. As much as I like @github and @microsoft, this is alarming: https://www.zdnet.com/... Jay Graber / @arcalinea : @Michael40689629 @GitHubHelp @erfannoury @shanselman “Persons in and residents of these jurisdictions are prohibited from using IP proxies, VPNs, or other methods to disguise their location when accessing GitHub services ” https://help.github.com/... @thorstenbutz : When ppl started to leave Github, because MSFT bought them, I stated that this is an overreaction. Now it turns out, that it was not. But not because of MSFT itself, but because of US law. This will likely grow to a major fire. https://help.github.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nat Friedman / @natfriedman : To comply with US sanctions, we unfortunately had to implement new restrictions on private repos and paid accounts in Iran, Syria, and Crimea. Public repos remain available to developers everywhere - open source repos are NOT affected. Hamed Saeedi / @hamed : @natfriedman @github @GitHubHelp Update 9: I updated the original article with dates and @natfriedman responses. https://medium.com/... Nat Friedman / @natfriedman : It is painful for me to hear how trade restrictions have hurt people. We have gone to great lengths to do no more than what is required by the law, but of course people are still affected. GitHub is subject to US trade law, just like any company that does business in the US. @davewiner : This is why we can't use Microsoft to host the world wide open code repository. https://www.zdnet.com/... Byuu / @byuu_san : I pick a service for expediency over ethics and not one week later: https://www.zdnet.com/... Mary Jo Foley / @maryjofoley : If you use online services from Microsoft-owned GitHub in a country facing US sanctions, you could be about to be kicked off all but the most basic offerings: https://www.zdnet.com/... (by ZDNet's @LiamT) @marccataford : Interesting tidbit to keep in your back pocket: US trade policy & sanctions apply to #code hosted on @github. This makes you think about whether having a centralised decentralised version control system makes any sense. #software #engineering https://github.com/... Adriene / @taciturasa : https://github.com/... once again, centralized, proprietary software is fascism (re: the silencing of independent, open source developers) Daniele Sluijters / @daenney : So @github is now denying #FLOSS maintainers the ability to use their platform b/c of US sanctions. https://github.com/... @christinabahk : um, Github sanctions now in effect? If Code is Speech then now they are blocking freedom of speech on git. 😠 https://github.com/... @kerunaru : What is this, @github? https://github.com/... Really migrating to @gitlab in 3, 2, 1... /cc @Microsoft @mor10 : This is problematic on many levels. Laws that force companies to block users from participation in Open Source based on geography is the antithesis of the open web. https://medium.com/... Mahdi Taghizadeh / @mahdi : Another wave of #Techno Sanctions, this time imposed by @github. Iranian independent software developers (with no ties to government) are being restricted from the popular OSS platform. That's a shame for you @Microsoft! Read @Hamed's story. https://medium.com/... @sitnikcode : This week @github just banned all users from Iran and Crimea. They can't see or push the code. https://medium.com/... Even GitHub Pages content is banned. VPN will not help. GitHub banned users, who used Iranian IPs in the past. https://twitter.com/... Elias Daler / @eliasdaler : https://github.com/... “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea.” This is pretty worrying... GitHub's monopoly is not good, and package managers which do ‘git clone’ from GitHub can become unavailable for a lot of people. Rasha Malek / @amirrasha : “@GitHub blocked my account and they think I'm developing nuclear weapons” by @Hamed https://rsci.app.link/... these days, Github restricted Iranian developer's accounts; also another similar thread from Crimea: https://news.ycombinator.com/ ... https://github.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Two developers — one in Crimea, one in Iran — reported their GitHub accounts were 'restricted' due to US trade controls, with GitHub's CEO attributing the limits to place of residence. Days later, GitHub officially confirmed it was blocking developers in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and Crimea from private repositories and paid accounts.
The move has precedent: Apple cut off Crimea-based developers after the same 2014-era sanctions back in 2015, so GitHub is the second major platform forced to choose between its global user base and OFAC compliance. The stakes are higher here because GitHub sits at the center of open-source collaboration — which is why the fallout extended beyond the five sanctioned territories within months.
First-order effects
- Developers in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and Crimea immediately lose access to private repositories and paid GitHub accounts, cutting them off from the default home of open-source work.
- GitHub absorbs the compliance burden directly: as a Microsoft-owned US company it has no discretion over the blocks, only over how they're implemented and communicated.
Second-order effects
- Trust spillover reaches unsanctioned users: by December, GitHub's COO was considering a China-based branch as Chinese developers worried about losing access amid US sanctions.
- Other US-hosted developer platforms face the same compliance question Apple answered in 2015, forcing each to either enforce geo-blocks preemptively or risk penalties.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, US-based code-hosting platforms become de facto instruments of trade policy, and developers in geopolitically exposed regions rationally hedge toward self-hosted or non-US alternatives — fragmenting what open source treated as a single global commons.
- The remedy is regulatory, not technical: GitHub's path back into Iran ran through securing a US government license in 2021, suggesting platform sanctions create collateral damage that only case-by-case carve-outs can unwind.
The trend: Developer-platform access is hardening into an arm of US trade controls, with sanctions enforcement splitting the once-universal open-source commons along jurisdictional lines.