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Dear devs, Please stop using Google Cloud Platform to host your projects. GCP blocks Iran, so by hosting any part of the app on GCP, your apps become impossib

Dear devs, Please stop using Google Cloud Platform to host your projects. GCP blocks Iran, so by hosting any part of the app on GCP, your apps become impossible to access from Iran. Azure and AWS do not do this. This form of blocking is exclusive to GCP. After the switch to GCP, Iranians lost access to gitlab. Firefox Monitor is blocked in Iran for the same reason. The list goes on and on. I don't believe Mozilla team for example has consciously decided to block Iran, just that their devs do not know about Google's policy regarding Iran. I hope all devs learn about this fact, so they make informed decisions when choosing cloud platforms.

xrd 7y ago
This should be spread more widely. I didn't know this.
viraptor 7y ago
Is GCP blocking a result of the current sanctions on Iran? (ie. we can't differentiate what you provide so we'll cut everything) Or some other reason?
- smnrchrds 7y ago
  It's because of sanctions, but it's not recent. I think GCP had always blocked Iran, but I'm not sure. In any case, Azure and AWS are complying with the same sanctions without a blanket ban. After all, they are American companies as well. Azure and AWS don't allow customers from Iran to purchase hosting services, but don't block access to all sites hosted on their platforms, and it seems that this is enough for US regulators to not consider them in violation of sanctions. I imagine Google has taken an extreme "better safe than sorry" approach which other players have fortunately decided not to copy.
  - sterlind 7y ago
    I bet it's technical. Both GCP, YouTube and other Google properties suffered recently due to a misconfigured core switch in one of their regions. This implies they share at least network fabric between GCP and everything else. They probably slapped a blanket block over some shared infrastructure, and decided GCP is too much of a small-fry to justify the legal and technical work to be more nuanced. (Disclosure: I work for MS but have no knowledge of our sanction compliance stuff)
keithnz 7y ago
I'm interested in knowning more about this. Not a lot of information about it, I found this article from 2018... https://news.sky.com/story/google-faces-calls-to-lift-anti-censorship-blocks-in-iran-11192888 https://news.sky.com/story/google-faces-calls-to-lift-anti-c...
- smnrchrds 7y ago
  The documentation seems to be lacking, which explains why so many people in the US seem to have not heard of this. But as always, Stack Overflow has an outdated answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32678313/what-countries-and-territories-is-google-app-engine-currently-blocked-in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32678313/what-countries-...
user5994461 7y ago
Dear dev, Please disregard the message above. USA and Europe too are forbidding you to sell to Iran and a couple of countries. Google is doing you a favor by blocking traffic out of the box. If they didn't do it, you would most likely have to block it yourself. There are official documents listing items and services you're not allowed to provide with how many years of jails you're risking. Just because you don't know about them and don't care won't be worth squat as a defense when the police will come knocking on your company's doors.
- smnrchrds 7y ago
  Google is not blocking access to Google Search, or Gmail, or Calendar, Drive, Photos, Maps, etc. Only access to dev tools (e.g. Android Tools) is blocked. I am not a lawyer, but my understanding, based on the actions of companies with larger legal teams than most companies have employees, is that only a tiny portion of the apps need to be blocked in Iran to be compliant with the sanctions. Simplenote (hosted on GCP) is inaccessible in Iran while Google Keep is accessible, not because of sanctions but because Google's company policy blocks access to anything on GCP. I am sure the Simplenote dev would not be in jail had he chosen to host on Azure.
  - user5994461 7y ago
    Quick rule of thumb, as soon as you're dealing with any payment or physical good, you're in quasi certain prohibited territory. That goes for EU countries too that could be considered somewhat chilled in comparison to the US. Hence all businesses should be blocking Iran really, contrary to what you are implying... unless you have a magic business that sells nothing and earns no money. A note taking app might just fly, or not.
    - smnrchrds 7y ago
      Based on the actions of large US tech companies, as described above and in my other comment [0], I believe the rule of thumb is "Don't take Iranian money." If you are blocking access to a free-to-use service or the free tier of a paid service, you are using a stricter blocking scheme than seems to be required based on the actions of legally-savvy tech companies. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20494402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20494402
Thaxll 7y ago
Every US companies must block Iran, it's not Google it's everyone. https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/programs/pages/iran.aspx https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/programs/... https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Pages/faq_iran.aspx#630 https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Page... 630. Is the provision or delivery of goods or services to an Iranian counterparty after November 4, 2018 allowed? The wind-down period has ended and the United States intends to fully enforce the sanctions that have come back into effect. The provision or delivery of goods or services and/or the extension of additional loans or credits to an Iranian counterparty after November 4, 2018 — even pursuant to written contracts or written agreements entered into prior to May 8, 2018 — may result in the imposition of U.S. sanctions unless such activities are exempt from regulation, authorized by OFAC, or otherwise not sanctionable.
- devoply 7y ago
  Canada too.
- smnrchrds 7y ago
  > Every US companies must block Iran, This does not seem correct. Here is a short non-comprehensive list of services by US companies not blocked in Iran. The list is big enough, and the companies involved large and legally-savvy enough, that this cannot be an oversight. * Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook * Google Maps, Waze (quite popular right now in Iran too!) * Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive * Github * Google Keep * Google Docs, Zoho * ... The complete list would be hundreds or thousands of pages long. Based on this, I don't think your assertion is correct. Either that, or every big US company is breaking sanctions on Iran with impunity. That does not seem plausible.
  - Thaxll 7y ago
    I don't know what are the details but I worked for a major company and they didn't even try to see if the service was against embargo they just blocked it. Gmail might not be blocked but can you create an email?
mattigames 7y ago
Or... maybe developers should not play the games the Iran goverment want them to play and every effort should go towards throwing the current dictatorship not to stop using what they want us to stop using?
- aphroz 7y ago
  What about American developers? Shouldn't they stop using services like Google, Facebook, etc. Because of their proven collaboration with US intelligence service?
  - mattigames 7y ago
    America is not a dictatorship, the chance of changing the goverment (and that includes its intel agencies) for the best by politics still exist so I don't even see the equivalence you are trying to make here, if anything developers and everyone else should _use those platforms_ (Google, Facebook, etc) to promote saner politics.
    - aphroz 7y ago
      Most of the difficulties the author is mentioning are caused by the US sanctions that have been put in place after Trump's decision to walk away from the deal the US signed with Iran (against international laws). What you call "democracy" is causing most of the difficulties the author encounter, not the censorship or surveillance from the "dictatorship". But I think it's not more the role of developers to change the politics than any regular citizen. In that case, you might want to reconsider the products you buy from China as well.
      - mattigames 7y ago
        Me stopping buying products from china would change exactly nothing, the only useful change against China tyranny that can be done is forbidding importations with new laws.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
freedomben 7y ago
Are you able to use VPN services from Iran to change the apparent country of origin of your traffic? Not saying that's a great solution, but it's what I would try to do, provided VPNs aren't blocked by the government.
avocado4 7y ago
Iran is sending oil to dictatorship which gasses children, changing our business strategy to appease the barbaric regime is not a priority for us.
- issam01 7y ago
  Iran was sending this oil to us, the Syrian people, the "regime" was willing to start the winter oil supplies to the poor Syrian families on the next month, now the oil has been stolen by the GREAT DEMOCRATIC UK, and we will face the cold winter without oil, thanks to the new pirates of the Mediterranean.

xrd 7y ago

This should be spread more widely. I didn't know this.

viraptor 7y ago

Is GCP blocking a result of the current sanctions on Iran? (ie. we can't differentiate what you provide so we'll cut everything) Or some other reason?

smnrchrds 7y ago
It's because of sanctions, but it's not recent. I think GCP had always blocked Iran, but I'm not sure. In any case, Azure and AWS are complying with the same sanctions without a blanket ban. After all, they are American companies as well. Azure and AWS don't allow customers from Iran to purchase hosting services, but don't block access to all sites hosted on their platforms, and it seems that this is enough for US regulators to not consider them in violation of sanctions. I imagine Google has taken an extreme "better safe than sorry" approach which other players have fortunately decided not to copy.
- sterlind 7y ago
  I bet it's technical. Both GCP, YouTube and other Google properties suffered recently due to a misconfigured core switch in one of their regions. This implies they share at least network fabric between GCP and everything else. They probably slapped a blanket block over some shared infrastructure, and decided GCP is too much of a small-fry to justify the legal and technical work to be more nuanced. (Disclosure: I work for MS but have no knowledge of our sanction compliance stuff)

keithnz 7y ago

I'm interested in knowning more about this. Not a lot of information about it, I found this article from 2018... https://news.sky.com/story/google-faces-calls-to-lift-anti-censorship-blocks-in-iran-11192888 https://news.sky.com/story/google-faces-calls-to-lift-anti-c...

smnrchrds 7y ago
The documentation seems to be lacking, which explains why so many people in the US seem to have not heard of this. But as always, Stack Overflow has an outdated answer: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32678313/what-countries-and-territories-is-google-app-engine-currently-blocked-in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32678313/what-countries-...

user5994461 7y ago

Dear dev, Please disregard the message above. USA and Europe too are forbidding you to sell to Iran and a couple of countries. Google is doing you a favor by blocking traffic out of the box. If they didn't do it, you would most likely have to block it yourself. There are official documents listing items and services you're not allowed to provide with how many years of jails you're risking. Just because you don't know about them and don't care won't be worth squat as a defense when the police will come knocking on your company's doors.

smnrchrds 7y ago
Google is not blocking access to Google Search, or Gmail, or Calendar, Drive, Photos, Maps, etc. Only access to dev tools (e.g. Android Tools) is blocked. I am not a lawyer, but my understanding, based on the actions of companies with larger legal teams than most companies have employees, is that only a tiny portion of the apps need to be blocked in Iran to be compliant with the sanctions. Simplenote (hosted on GCP) is inaccessible in Iran while Google Keep is accessible, not because of sanctions but because Google's company policy blocks access to anything on GCP. I am sure the Simplenote dev would not be in jail had he chosen to host on Azure.
- user5994461 7y ago
  Quick rule of thumb, as soon as you're dealing with any payment or physical good, you're in quasi certain prohibited territory. That goes for EU countries too that could be considered somewhat chilled in comparison to the US. Hence all businesses should be blocking Iran really, contrary to what you are implying... unless you have a magic business that sells nothing and earns no money. A note taking app might just fly, or not.
  - smnrchrds 7y ago
    Based on the actions of large US tech companies, as described above and in my other comment [0], I believe the rule of thumb is "Don't take Iranian money." If you are blocking access to a free-to-use service or the free tier of a paid service, you are using a stricter blocking scheme than seems to be required based on the actions of legally-savvy tech companies. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20494402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20494402

Thaxll 7y ago

Every US companies must block Iran, it's not Google it's everyone. https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/programs/pages/iran.aspx https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/programs/... https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Pages/faq_iran.aspx#630 https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Page... 630. Is the provision or delivery of goods or services to an Iranian counterparty after November 4, 2018 allowed? The wind-down period has ended and the United States intends to fully enforce the sanctions that have come back into effect. The provision or delivery of goods or services and/or the extension of additional loans or credits to an Iranian counterparty after November 4, 2018 — even pursuant to written contracts or written agreements entered into prior to May 8, 2018 — may result in the imposition of U.S. sanctions unless such activities are exempt from regulation, authorized by OFAC, or otherwise not sanctionable.

devoply 7y ago
Canada too.
smnrchrds 7y ago
> Every US companies must block Iran, This does not seem correct. Here is a short non-comprehensive list of services by US companies not blocked in Iran. The list is big enough, and the companies involved large and legally-savvy enough, that this cannot be an oversight. * Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook * Google Maps, Waze (quite popular right now in Iran too!) * Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive * Github * Google Keep * Google Docs, Zoho * ... The complete list would be hundreds or thousands of pages long. Based on this, I don't think your assertion is correct. Either that, or every big US company is breaking sanctions on Iran with impunity. That does not seem plausible.
- Thaxll 7y ago
  I don't know what are the details but I worked for a major company and they didn't even try to see if the service was against embargo they just blocked it. Gmail might not be blocked but can you create an email?

mattigames 7y ago

Or... maybe developers should not play the games the Iran goverment want them to play and every effort should go towards throwing the current dictatorship not to stop using what they want us to stop using?

aphroz 7y ago
What about American developers? Shouldn't they stop using services like Google, Facebook, etc. Because of their proven collaboration with US intelligence service?
- mattigames 7y ago
  America is not a dictatorship, the chance of changing the goverment (and that includes its intel agencies) for the best by politics still exist so I don't even see the equivalence you are trying to make here, if anything developers and everyone else should _use those platforms_ (Google, Facebook, etc) to promote saner politics.
  - aphroz 7y ago
    Most of the difficulties the author is mentioning are caused by the US sanctions that have been put in place after Trump's decision to walk away from the deal the US signed with Iran (against international laws). What you call "democracy" is causing most of the difficulties the author encounter, not the censorship or surveillance from the "dictatorship". But I think it's not more the role of developers to change the politics than any regular citizen. In that case, you might want to reconsider the products you buy from China as well.
    - mattigames 7y ago
      Me stopping buying products from china would change exactly nothing, the only useful change against China tyranny that can be done is forbidding importations with new laws.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

freedomben 7y ago

Are you able to use VPN services from Iran to change the apparent country of origin of your traffic? Not saying that's a great solution, but it's what I would try to do, provided VPNs aren't blocked by the government.

avocado4 7y ago

Iran is sending oil to dictatorship which gasses children, changing our business strategy to appease the barbaric regime is not a priority for us.

issam01 7y ago
Iran was sending this oil to us, the Syrian people, the "regime" was willing to start the winter oil supplies to the poor Syrian families on the next month, now the oil has been stolen by the GREAT DEMOCRATIC UK, and we will face the cold winter without oil, thanks to the new pirates of the Mediterranean.