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> What actions or speech do you think Github has taken that makes that clear? Github has deleted Iranian / Russian / etc. Repos before purely for political rea

> What actions or speech do you think Github has taken that makes that clear? Github has deleted Iranian / Russian / etc. Repos before purely for political reasons. GitHub belongs to Microsoft, and Microsoft has a stake in OpenAI. Seems like a reason to me.

jrochkind1 3y ago
By purely political reasons, do you mean to comply with US law? Those are the only cases I can find [1] [2] [3]. Or if there are other cases, I'd love to see a link to more info! I don't like the US law much either, personally. I just don't consider a US corporation complying with US law to be a demonstration they will do arbitrary things for "any reason", it's sort of the default I expect from corporations and very predictable. If there's an example of a US corporation that chose to intentionally violate those sanction laws as an ethical stance, I'd love to find out more about that, and the outcome, too! I would imagine they would be penalized by the US government. Microsoft was in fact recently so penalized [4], but I don't think it had anything to do with github, and I definitely don't think it was an ethical stance, just a mistake/profit-motivated one, or because these laws are a mess and hard to comply with. But I expect US corporations to try to comply with US laws, and don't consider doing so to be arbitrary or unpredictable "any reason". [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/github-starts-blocking-developers-in-countries-facing-us-trade-sanctions/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/github-starts-blocking-develop... [2] https://github.blog/2019-09-12-global-software-collaboration-in-the-face-of-sanctions/ https://github.blog/2019-09-12-global-software-collaboration... [3] https://techweez.com/2022/04/18/github-suspending-accounts-russian-developers/ https://techweez.com/2022/04/18/github-suspending-accounts-r... [4] https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1394 https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1394

jrochkind1 3y ago

By purely political reasons, do you mean to comply with US law? Those are the only cases I can find [1] [2] [3]. Or if there are other cases, I'd love to see a link to more info! I don't like the US law much either, personally. I just don't consider a US corporation complying with US law to be a demonstration they will do arbitrary things for "any reason", it's sort of the default I expect from corporations and very predictable. If there's an example of a US corporation that chose to intentionally violate those sanction laws as an ethical stance, I'd love to find out more about that, and the outcome, too! I would imagine they would be penalized by the US government. Microsoft was in fact recently so penalized [4], but I don't think it had anything to do with github, and I definitely don't think it was an ethical stance, just a mistake/profit-motivated one, or because these laws are a mess and hard to comply with. But I expect US corporations to try to comply with US laws, and don't consider doing so to be arbitrary or unpredictable "any reason". [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/github-starts-blocking-developers-in-countries-facing-us-trade-sanctions/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/github-starts-blocking-develop... [2] https://github.blog/2019-09-12-global-software-collaboration-in-the-face-of-sanctions/ https://github.blog/2019-09-12-global-software-collaboration... [3] https://techweez.com/2022/04/18/github-suspending-accounts-russian-developers/ https://techweez.com/2022/04/18/github-suspending-accounts-r... [4] https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1394 https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1394