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Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

ahmadhaghighi.com

321–330 of 353 posts

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists. I find that very hard to believe, considering the activities of the CIA -- just the ones we know about -- over the last several decades (or, really, since its beginning). -- Side note: Does selling billions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia count as sponsoring terrorists? cf. Jamal Khashoggi, et al.

A state killing a political opponent, however unacceptable, isn't terrorism. The point of terrorism is that it effects unsuspecting bystanders. I already said I think we should sanction the saudis though, because they actually are sponsoring terrorism. See the Yemen war and their funding of al queda as well as their infiltration of twitter.

"unsuspecting bystanders"

What about civilians killed by Saudi Arabia with American-made cluster bombs?[0] Do they count?

[0] https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cl...

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I want to live in a world where all software engineers have to bow down to US foreign policy. If there is a real need to put sanctions in place to avoid a war, they can go through the UN and a vote on the UNSC. Otherwise, it's just great power games, and I don't want to have to deal with that.

I appreciate what you're trying to say here, but a UNSC resolution is not even a full step away from "great power games". It's not the same, but it's hardly different.

If a resolution passes the UNSC without veto, as well as passes the UN GA, then there is much higher likelihood that it is a legitimate issue and not just a game of great powers, perhaps even close to a certainty.

That is not to say that there if it fails to go through the process it is necessarily just a game of great powers, but hey, that's the world we live in.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#323

(slightly offtopic) imagine running "docker pull hello-world" and getting 403 because you were born in a wrong country I would be mad at the US if this happened to me

Why not be mad at the theocratic government that refuses to conform to international expectations, and allows its citizens to suffer for those actions?

Us expectations would be more accurate

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#324
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A state killing a political opponent, however unacceptable, isn't terrorism. The point of terrorism is that it effects unsuspecting bystanders. I already said I think we should sanction the saudis though, because they actually are sponsoring terrorism. See the Yemen war and their funding of al queda as well as their infiltration of twitter.

"unsuspecting bystanders" What about civilians killed by Saudi Arabia with American-made cluster bombs?[0] Do they count? [0] https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cl...

I literally said that the Saudi's actions in Yemen were terrorism in the comment you're replying to?

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Note that the vast majority of websites do not do this. Even big ones, such as Gmail, do not do this. I wish dang would ban users for blatant misinformation such as this. The number of people who end up believing these lies as truth probably outweighs the benefit of any civil discussion it could lead to: in the US, it's now obvious th…

You are quoting a very specific claim. That big providers such as Gmail and GitHub do not block Iranian IPs. Are you saying they do?

>You are quoting a very specific claim. That big providers such as Gmail and GitHub do not block Iranian IPs. Are you saying they do?

Yes I am saying they block accounts by Iranian IPs, and this is easily verifiable if you know anyone who lives in Iran and can access a website - attempting to use Github functionality for anything other than viewing repositories right now is currently blocked, and enterprise accounts are entirely blocked.

Personal Gmail accounts are the exception to Google services available in Iran, and some functionality is also blocked by IP - if you live in Iran currently you might know that almost all other Google services and enterprise accounts are outright blocked by IPs too:

https://support.google.com/a/thread/4870330?hl=en

https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/site-...

Here is a non-comprehensive list of sites that block Iranian IPs, most outright disallowing access to websites:

https://gist.github.com/alibo/dfd7c258bcc44a0e8c9f7c5bfd3bd2...

Please do not spread misinformation.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is dangerously inaccurate information. To those reading this, the US absolutely considers blocking Iranian IPs a required action under the sanctions. The person posting this could get you in serious legal trouble. With that said, most companies do not start blocking these IPs until they are either contacted by US authorities and asked to comply or via the recommendations of an audit by an outside private company…

Prominent examples disagree with you. Gmail for example. They even allow accounts! Now maybe Google wants to argue that Gmail qualifies for the personal communication tools exception. But wait, GitHub doesn't block Iranian IPs either! They allow free accounts as well! Call in the feds! Is there any government guidance or legal precedent that says IP blocking is required? There is not. Any evidence that the government…

>Prominent examples disagree with you. Gmail for example. They even allow accounts! Now maybe Google wants to argue that Gmail qualifies for the personal communication tools exception. But wait, GitHub doesn't block Iranian IPs either! They allow free accounts as well! Call in the feds!

Both Google and Github block accounts by Iranian IPs, and this is easily verifiable if you know anyone who lives in Iran and can access a website - attempting to use Github functionality for anything other than viewing repositories right now is currently blocked, and enterprise accounts are entirely blocked.

Personal Gmail accounts are the exception to Google services available in Iran, and some functionality is also blocked by IP - if you live in Iran currently you might know that almost all other Google services and enterprise accounts are outright blocked by IP too:

https://support.google.com/a/thread/4870330?hl=en

https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/site-...

Here is a non-comprehensive list of sites that block Iranian IPs, most outright disallowing access to websites:

https://gist.github.com/alibo/dfd7c258bcc44a0e8c9f7c5bfd3bd2...

Please do not pay attention to this fellow, he is spreading legal misinformation that is dangerous.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#327
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is dangerously inaccurate information. To those reading this, the US absolutely considers blocking Iranian IPs a required action under the sanctions. The person posting this could get you in serious legal trouble. With that said, most companies do not start blocking these IPs until they are either contacted by US authorities and asked to comply or via the recommendations of an audit by an outside private company…

> Please do not trust what this person is saying. I don’t trust what you are saying either until you show me the sources of the claims. I think it’s fair to say that everyone in a position to comply with US sanctions will carefully check what they need to do to comply with them.

Here's some additional background in an official document from Github describing the nature of what sanctions typically do, which also describes how and why some websites opt to create "downgraded" experiences rather than outright blocks in those countries:

https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/site-...

https://github.blog/2019-09-12-global-software-collaboration...

Additionally, descriptions of what types of software might be sanctioned:

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS20871.pdf

As you might guess, enterprise accounts are the most targeted aspect of these sanctions.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#328
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is dangerously inaccurate information. To those reading this, the US absolutely considers blocking Iranian IPs a required action under the sanctions. The person posting this could get you in serious legal trouble. With that said, most companies do not start blocking these IPs until they are either contacted by US authorities and asked to comply or via the recommendations of an audit by an outside private company…

In the absence of an authority who can comment on this or an authoritative reference, I think your comment is just as dangerous and inaccurate as the parent comment. Unfortunately everyone is using very strong language to silence the other side and no one is offering up any kind of evidence to substantiate their position. Different groups of people get harmed when such strong assertions are made without any kind of e…

You can read here what Github has done to allow some functionality for Iranian users, but you might be able to tell that this was additional feature work to put in place: https://github.blog/2019-09-12-global-software-collaboration...

Restrictions actually go further as of recently: https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/site-...

Describing the decision to build a partially functional "sanctioned" country website and account degradation as overcompliance is misleading as it is the default behaviour for most complying to US sanctions regarding IP blocking other countries.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#329
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"unsuspecting bystanders" What about civilians killed by Saudi Arabia with American-made cluster bombs?[0] Do they count? [0] https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cl...

I literally said that the Saudi's actions in Yemen were terrorism in the comment you're replying to?

Oh, right, haven't read that far :) Sorry)

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#330
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Do you have a source for this being over-compliance? Gitlab and Github are both actively sharing technology. It's not like Gitlab randomly decided "Hey let's block Iran today", obviously they have in house legal council who advised this course of action. With regards to your second point, everyone knows there are sanctions on Iran, i…

Note that Github does not block Iranian IPs, nor Iranian accounts.

Github does block functionality through Iranian IPs, and this is easily verifiable if you know anyone who lives in Iran and can access a website or via an Iranian proxy connection and then attempting to use private repos functionality on personal accounts, with enterprise accounts being entirely blocked.

Personal Gmail accounts are the exception to Google services available in Iran, and some functionality is also blocked by IP - if you live in Iran currently you might know that almost all other Google services and enterprise accounts are outright blocked by IPs too:

https://support.google.com/a/thread/4870330?hl=en

https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/site-...

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