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GitHub Censors Catalonian App Tsunami Democratic

259 points by zoobab 7y ago

notkaiho 7y ago
From a machine translation of the article: "announced through its Telegram channel that the US company had thrown access to the Tsunami repository from our country. You only need to go to one of their last available web links: tsunamidemocratic.github.io to see that it is true. In a warning message written in English , the system alerts that "the repository is not available in your location"." I'm not in Catalonia, and was able to click through to the repository. Surely no developer would be deterred by a simple IP ban?
- wayoutthere 7y ago
  > Surely no developer would be deterred by a simple IP ban? Except it's not just for developers; it's the homepage for the app. Though part of me has a feeling that GitHub complies with these takedown notices in the way that they do because they know how easily circumvented they are. Pretty much everyone involved with a modern protest movement has been taught some basic level of digital OpSec by the organizers.
- EugeneOZ 7y ago
  I'm in Barcelona and was able to open that page and download that app. My IP is not masked and few geo-ip services I tried says "Barcelona". To avoid future possible misunderstandings: I do not support Tsunami Democràtic and I strongly disagree with their methods.
aeonflux 7y ago
https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/Spain/2019/2019-10-23-GuardiaCivil.md https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/Spain/20...
lucideer 7y ago
While it's fair to call out the owner of any property when something like this happens, the emphasis of "Microsoft" in the headline seems to imply that this is some newly introduced policy since the acquisition. As far as I'm aware, Github has been honouring government takedowns of this nature since long before they were acquired by Microsoft.
- Operyl 7y ago
  The way I read it on the article, with punctuation, I don’t think it was necessarily intended like that? It’s in parentheses “Microsoft (GitHub)”. I don’t read Spanish fluently, though, so perhaps I’m not grasping it entirely. It felt like they were just adding context.
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    > Microsoft (GitHub) blocks the Tsunami Democràtic to avoid the issues of their 'app' Is how I'd translate it and depending on who you are, you might just ignore the GitHub bit if you have no idea who that is and just assume Microsoft's doing this outright. It is confusing, but the subtitle specifically calls GitHub a service owned by Microsoft. They then mention since when Microsoft has owned GitHub, which I'm not sure how accurate it is or isn't. Is it wholly owned by Microsoft at this time? Though as others have said, it's an existing policy.
    - freeone3000 7y ago
      Yes, GitHub is 100% owned by Microsoft. The date in the article is correct.
      - giancarlostoro 7y ago
        Thanks, I wasn't sure the state of the buyout.
  - wayoutthere 7y ago
    In the first paragraph, they say "GitHub, the service owned by Microsoft since June 2018, has begun to block access to the repository that hosts the web page and the application from Spain."
  - hiccuphippo 7y ago
    The article is aimed at regular people who's probably not familiar with GitHub but surely know Microsoft. Maybe they should have written it "GitHub (Microsoft)" instead.
zozbot234 7y ago
Takedown notice is discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629
- dang 7y ago
  Most comments moved thither. Thanks!
maaaats 7y ago
OT, but some headings with all capitalized words are impossible to decipher. Where does one put the groupings here? Looks like a gibberish sentence to my (non-native) eyes. > Microsoft's GitHub Censors Catalonian App Tsunami Democratic
- Miraste 7y ago
  Subject: GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft Verb: Censors Object: the Catalonian app called "Tsunami Democratic"
- jdmichal 7y ago
  (Microsoft's GitHub) censors (Catalonian App (Tsunami Democratic)) Some quotes around the app name, "Tsunami Democratic", would have helped a lot. The structure of the original Spanish headline delineates the app name from other nouns a lot better.
mfer 7y ago
> Microsoft Spain sources have confirmed to Teknautas that they have not received any request from the security forces and bodies of the State to close Tsunami repositories Note, this is a translation. If I understand it right, GitHub is a wholly owned subsidiary. That means it may have been (likely?) GitHub legal rather than Microsoft legal that received the request. Did the reporter not know to check with GitHub or was it something else? There is a little bit of organizational dynamics at play here. We may know how these companies are organized but do the masses? How much of the international reporters should we expect to know this?
dang 7y ago
We have deep respect for languages other than English, but HN is an English-language site, so this is off topic here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22english%20language%20site%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629 was posted earlier, so we'll merge (most) comments there.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

259 points by zoobab 7y ago

From a machine translation of the article: "announced through its Telegram channel that the US company had thrown access to the Tsunami repository from our country. You only need to go to one of their last available web links: tsunamidemocratic.github.io to see that it is true. In a warning message written in English , the system alerts that "the repository is not available in your location"." I'm not in Catalonia, and was able to click through to the repository. Surely no developer would be deterred by a simple IP ban?

wayoutthere 7y ago
> Surely no developer would be deterred by a simple IP ban? Except it's not just for developers; it's the homepage for the app. Though part of me has a feeling that GitHub complies with these takedown notices in the way that they do because they know how easily circumvented they are. Pretty much everyone involved with a modern protest movement has been taught some basic level of digital OpSec by the organizers.
EugeneOZ 7y ago
I'm in Barcelona and was able to open that page and download that app. My IP is not masked and few geo-ip services I tried says "Barcelona". To avoid future possible misunderstandings: I do not support Tsunami Democràtic and I strongly disagree with their methods.

aeonflux 7y ago

https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/Spain/2019/2019-10-23-GuardiaCivil.md https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns/blob/master/Spain/20...

lucideer 7y ago

While it's fair to call out the owner of any property when something like this happens, the emphasis of "Microsoft" in the headline seems to imply that this is some newly introduced policy since the acquisition. As far as I'm aware, Github has been honouring government takedowns of this nature since long before they were acquired by Microsoft.

Operyl 7y ago
The way I read it on the article, with punctuation, I don’t think it was necessarily intended like that? It’s in parentheses “Microsoft (GitHub)”. I don’t read Spanish fluently, though, so perhaps I’m not grasping it entirely. It felt like they were just adding context.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  > Microsoft (GitHub) blocks the Tsunami Democràtic to avoid the issues of their 'app' Is how I'd translate it and depending on who you are, you might just ignore the GitHub bit if you have no idea who that is and just assume Microsoft's doing this outright. It is confusing, but the subtitle specifically calls GitHub a service owned by Microsoft. They then mention since when Microsoft has owned GitHub, which I'm not sure how accurate it is or isn't. Is it wholly owned by Microsoft at this time? Though as others have said, it's an existing policy.
  - freeone3000 7y ago
    Yes, GitHub is 100% owned by Microsoft. The date in the article is correct.
    - giancarlostoro 7y ago
      Thanks, I wasn't sure the state of the buyout.
- wayoutthere 7y ago
  In the first paragraph, they say "GitHub, the service owned by Microsoft since June 2018, has begun to block access to the repository that hosts the web page and the application from Spain."
- hiccuphippo 7y ago
  The article is aimed at regular people who's probably not familiar with GitHub but surely know Microsoft. Maybe they should have written it "GitHub (Microsoft)" instead.

zozbot234 7y ago

Takedown notice is discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629

dang 7y ago
Most comments moved thither. Thanks!

maaaats 7y ago

OT, but some headings with all capitalized words are impossible to decipher. Where does one put the groupings here? Looks like a gibberish sentence to my (non-native) eyes. > Microsoft's GitHub Censors Catalonian App Tsunami Democratic

Miraste 7y ago
Subject: GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft Verb: Censors Object: the Catalonian app called "Tsunami Democratic"
jdmichal 7y ago
(Microsoft's GitHub) censors (Catalonian App (Tsunami Democratic)) Some quotes around the app name, "Tsunami Democratic", would have helped a lot. The structure of the original Spanish headline delineates the app name from other nouns a lot better.

mfer 7y ago

> Microsoft Spain sources have confirmed to Teknautas that they have not received any request from the security forces and bodies of the State to close Tsunami repositories Note, this is a translation. If I understand it right, GitHub is a wholly owned subsidiary. That means it may have been (likely?) GitHub legal rather than Microsoft legal that received the request. Did the reporter not know to check with GitHub or was it something else? There is a little bit of organizational dynamics at play here. We may know how these companies are organized but do the masses? How much of the international reporters should we expect to know this?

dang 7y ago

We have deep respect for languages other than English, but HN is an English-language site, so this is off topic here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22english%20language%20site%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21395629 was posted earlier, so we'll merge (most) comments there.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]