GitHub is, by their own choice, a massive global library or bookseller of code. They effectively made the choice to take books off their shelves and cease accep

GitHub is, by their own choice, a massive global library or bookseller of code. They effectively made the choice to take books off their shelves and cease accepting new ones from specific authors, because the US government made them afraid. This should not happen in a country governed by our First Amendment. And, having chosen to take on this responsibility, GitHub/Microsoft’s attorneys should have to courage to stand up for those principles and be rightly criticized if they fail to. Note that hosting code and free developer accounts does not require GitHub to accept or pay money to the developers (who are not named explicitly in the sanctions order, by the way.) ETA: Big tech companies have a lot of resources and freedom to devote those resources to defending their users (see Google and Twitter lawsuits.) But they’re self-interested and won’t do that if they think their user-base won’t hold them responsible for doing that. I think GitHub is responsible here and I wish the HN commentariat would recognize that their opinion matters. By excusing the company’s cowardice here, we are incentivizing more of it in the future.