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Cut Russia from GitHub due to invasion of Ukraine
- richardfey 5y agoThis would be very similar to limiting email to and from Russia. A bad idea. Put a permanent Ukrainian colour theme on GitHub and a page explaining that GitHub condemns the act instead. They might block it anyways because it can be used to share information, so that is not a concern.
- bradgessler 5y agoAlso on every git push, display a message in the users console that condemns Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine.
- richardfey 5y agoThat would have Canonical CLI ads vibes...
- aaron695 5y ago
- Anonymous4272 5y agoBut does this not impact ALL russians including those protesting against putin? Also, does this not go against the entire FOSS philosophy- free as in libre and free as in gratis?
- asats 5y agoWorse than that, it would target mostly the people that are already against him, possibly forcing a lot of them to immigrate and leaving even fewer active opposition inside the country.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sneak 5y agoIt is worth noting that GitHub is not, and has never been, free software. It is likely an error to assume that GitHub's operators have "foss philosophy", especially given that GitHub is owned by the people who sell Windows and Office and Xbox.
- Anonymous4272 5y agoI am aware github itself is not foss. But the vast majority of FOSS projects hosted on github make github a big FOSS place, and by blocking their access (and asking for them to be blocked) is denying access to a lot of FOSS
- alkonaut 5y agoCut everything. This is probably among the less effective sanctions as its probably not affecting Putin supporters or anyone in power but more osint volunteers and similar. But do cut off civilian exports to Russia such as airplane parts. Ten time zones is a big place once the Boeings and Airbuses (90%+ of fleets?) are grounded for maintenance.
- andrewinardeer 5y agoGithub is fully available in Iran after securing a license to operate there from the US government. GitHub is about developer freedom. [0] Why would they be against developer freedom in Russia? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25648585 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25648585
- fendy3002 5y agoMy 2 cents, if somehow github can, throttling the Russian ip may be good. 1. It still provide access to citizens 2. Those with vpn can still access it unthrottled 3. It makes the news and set precedent 4. Nobody should underestimate how angry a programmer with a slow connection will be EDIT: with recent censorship from Russia, it's a tricky situation if github show some "invasion" notice there. Either Russia block github themselves or they irritated because they can't do anything.
- thekid314 5y agoHa, this is true, a slow connection is more of a hassle than no connection.
- neverminder 5y agoWhy not cut off Russia from the internet and any form of tech really? That would send them into a free fall, wouldn't it? Some people immediately bring up China, but those who know history, know very well that China is Russia's frenemy at best. I'm just speculating here, but what if say Microsoft sent a Russia-wide update that wipes all data and kills Windows?
- sumedh 5y agoOther countries would immediately start adopting Linux if MS decides to wipe data because they don't like that govt.
- mywacaday 5y agoFurther isolation, physical or technological is not the way forward. If the west wants to lead we have to bring countries like Russian and China with us and show their people there is a better way(If indeed it is better).
- chinathrow 5y agoWell history has not been able to show that your strategy works either - or simply said: We have a very grave situation in Europe _right now_ so we need immediate action _right now_ as well.
- neverminder 5y agoBecause feeding China money and tech turned out so well, huh?
- mkdirp 5y agoBecause countries living in an isolated internet has worked out so well historical. Look at North Korea. It's a utopia. The population oh so loves living there. They definitely do not want to leave. If it's unclear, that's a ball of sarcasm. > I'm just speculating here, but what if say Microsoft sent a Russia-wide update that wipes all data and kills Windows? Besides this being quite unethical because that, again, would affect the common folk, many of whom are against this war, it's a temporary measure. That is, assuming their systems aren't mostly Linux/BSD based.
- dgan 5y ago"Russian government has been building internet wall for a while now, let's help them and cut them out immediately and for free, that will show them!" - Somebody smart /s
- Proven 5y ago
- anotherhue 5y agoApple/Google could easily add a persistent notification to devices in Russia saying something along the lines of "The world condemns the invasion of Ukraine".
- jdthedisciple 5y agoInteresting how fast people lose all compassion and sympathy, and really humanity, towards a whole population which itself might be against what it's leaders are doing ... Also: I have yet to see such suggestions directed at the US or Israeli population for the many, well-known war crimes their leaders have committed and still are.
- nickpp 5y agoNo one wants any harm to the Russian people, but they too must do something to stop their madman. I know it is much more dangerous for them than for us keyboard pundits, but it is their responsibility. Think how much more dangerous it is for Ukrainians.
- throwawaylinux 5y agoHow about China?
- yuppie_scum 5y ago“Whataboutism” is not helpful. Focus on the problem at hand.
- gspetr 5y agoThe presented "solution" isn't one at all, see Iran.
- throwawaylinux 5y agoChina is the problem at hand, among many. Examining arguments for logical consistency and reasoning is very helpful to find flaws in them.
- wetpaws 5y agoRussia is a huge totalitarian prison and nobody can do much without being arrested or murdered.
- asats 5y agoMost young educated russians (the ones that use github) are against this war already, the problem is that no one can really do anything as literally holding a blank piece of paper in front of any government building will get you arrested. Those are not the people you want to target, target the elites close to Putin, those are the ones that could probably force some change.
- ganzuul 5y agoToday people who need Github and Stackoverflow for their work are not without influence, so this heuristic is not without merit. If we are discussing getting a city's PLCs to stop pumping sewage in reverse after a cyber attack then access should be open. If it's about Yandex server farms then it's different.
- blumomo 5y agoStop this stupid separatism. If you’re an engineer, rather ask for the root causes hidden behind the scenes. Bonus hint: main stream media with their war propaganda won’t tell you the root causes. They infect you with further separatism ideas.
- yaris 5y agoAs it has already been noted in the issue’s comments - this move won’t affect Putin’s supporters (yes, they exist in Russia and they aren’t just a few freaks), it won’t even affect the majority of those living in Russia. The most affected group will be young-middle aged educated people who are interacting with the rest of the world (ad opposed to the rest who can be fed any BS by state TV) and who are mostly in opposition to Putin’s actions. So it does more harm than good. Roskomnadzor has started ”restricting”/throttling traffic to FB and probably other big international websites/social networks, so the options to get more independent info about the reality are getting scarce in Russia.
- spicyusername 5y agoWe all share responsibility for the actions of our governments. When a state behaves inappropriately, it is the responsibility of it's citizens to correct it and prevent it from happening again. This applies equally to the transgressions of the United States as it does to Russia.
- bleuchase 5y agoStupid idea. Move on.
- gggggh 5y agoSounds good. While they're at it, also: - cut off Israel from GitHub for the occupation of Palestine - cut off Saudi Arabia from GitHub for the invasion of Yemen - cut off the US from GitHub for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq - etc. No double standards for the same imperialisms, please.
- Aeolun 5y agoNot the same imperialism. The US was clearly never planning to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan. They grossly miscalculated. For Russia this is a war of expansion. I think under those conditions Israel could be cut off though.
- mopsi 5y agoInstead of blocking, I recommend using the opportunity and attention to provide visitors from Russia with objective information about about the war to counter lies from the Russian government. Russia is engaged in a shameful war and they are hiding its true extent from their population.
- sebow 5y agoYeah: don't hold your breath on that. This is why self-hosting is the ultimate best solution and is a big criterion when i choose software.If you have moral/ethical problems towards an entity: you can solve them, because you're in control, not some "magical cloud fairy" you have to beg to stop providing useful resources to a regime(yes, ultimately even normal well-intended citizens become part of the regime, like it or not) that kills your family or close ones. As stated previously in my comments, the corporate western world is either personally fetishizing russian or totalitarian regimes (there >are< other examples besides russia/china from the past 10-15 years), or they/their higher-ups are too invested into those countries to be able to do something meaningful without hurting themselves and their own financial well-being.
- baoyu 5y agoToo many people are missing the point of actions like this. You want to make lives of everyone in Russia more unpleasant to send the signal that a war can’t be an easy PR win. If you start a war, it should suck for your citizens, even if they are watching the news from a safe distance. If your leader starts a war, your life will become worse and you will be poorer personally. Sure, this is less effective for authoritarian countries, but is still useful. Of course most Github users from Russia aren’t guilty, and many of them are already against the war. Good for them! But that’s not the point.
- gspetr 5y agoWhat is the point then? White collar workers just flee the country: See Venezuela, Iran, etc. Even Russian Revolution itself is an example of this trend. When white collar workers become "inconvenient" they get purged as enemies of the people. See Pol Pot's reign of terror in Cambodia. He had brutally purged roughly 25% of his own population, far more in relative numbers than Stalin, Hitler or Mao did, yet he still had been in power for decades, even after Vietnam invaded after massive refugee crisis. Iran had violent protests in the past few years, but the protesters just got killed and that was it.