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Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

ahmadhaghighi.com

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Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#341

Post by miracle2k »

dijit wrote: post #337
miracle2k wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is talking about Iranians being able to use AWS to host services. We are talking about services I host on AWS being accessible in Iran without a VPN.

Those are also blocked, but I genuinely implore you to make an Iranian friend (somehow) and ask them what works. For myself, I saw my users go to zero when I migrated to AWS+GCP over my European based co-location provider. I was hosting services that had 30,000~ monthly active users from Iran at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Iran#Un...

Admittedly, it's been a couple of months since I've been to Iran, so I just asked a friend in Mashad. He confirmed to me that my websites, running on a Kubernetes cluster on EC2 in the eu-west-1 are accessible without a VPN.

Maybe your issue was due to use of GCP?

I moved all my stuff to AWS specifically because Google Cloud does have this kind of block. I care about this a lot, so if your friends in Iran have different things to report, let's look into it to figure out what is going on.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#342

Post by Kranar »

DetroitThrow wrote: post #328
Kranar wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" cou…

I didn't describe Github as overcompliance, I described GitLAB as overcompliance. There are plenty of U.S. based internet services that work in Iran. There are instances where Iran has banned Gmail, and Iran currently has bans on Facebook and some other social media sites, but that's because the government of Iran has imposed such bans to prevent its people from using the Internet to engage in the free flow of information, not because of the U.S.

The links you mention don't state that Github did any work to comply with U.S. sanctions. The links you state are consistent with the links I posted which is that Github is welcome to provide online services to Iran that are free of charge.

Feel free to counter this by pointing out any particular feature or work that Github has to implement unless your suggestion is that denying access to people in Iran paid services like Github Enterprises is somehow a form of "additional feature work put in place" to support Iranian users.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#343

Post by Kranar »

DetroitThrow wrote: post #326
miracle2k wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 acc…

>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:

Google services in Iran are not blocked by Google or the U.S., they are blocked by Iran. It's the Iranian regime that seeks to block the use of things like Google's search engine, not the U.S.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#344

Post by boomboomsubban »

Causality1 wrote: post #339
boomboomsubban wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can find new jobs, the people you've killed for disagreeing with your foreign policy are dead forever.

I've found myself in an awkward position defending sanctions I don't really agree with anyway. I'm not sure these differences of opinion are reconcilable. Some people think the appropriate response to death threats is to ignore them, and others like me think the appropriate response is a cruise missile.

You realize that "Death to America" is not remotely a death threat? At worst it wants to see the fall of America and most Iranians say they just want the end of America's imperialist policies.

And you're against sanctions because they don't kill enough people.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#345

Post by diebeforei485 »

dessant wrote: post #80
diebeforei485 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This refers to bank accounts. A restricted account would mean the account can be closed and cashed out, but not used in other ways.

The same principle applies to GitLab in regards to account closure, they don't have to close an account without any interaction because the user has at some point logged in from an Iranian IP address, and they can preemptively restrict an account and ask for proof of residence.

Sure, but someone is being blocked while traveling temporarily, they can log in again once they travel back to their place of residence. I don't see why geo-blocking is unreasonable.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#346

Post by miracle2k »

Kranar wrote: post #343
DetroitThrow wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 acc…

>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: Google services in Iran are not blocked by Google or the U.S., they are blocked by Iran. It's the Iranian regime that seeks to block the use of things li…

Iran is blocking some things (though not search), but here we are talking about the opposite, and Google is indeed blocking a huge amount of their stuff, say, for example, the entirety of developer.google.com.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#347

Post by kspacewalk2 »

0xy wrote: post #287
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conducting 'independent surveys' under military occupation in an authoritarian state is a thoroughly nonsensical proposition. In Russia, it is literally a crime (incitement of separatism) to question Crimea's status as rightfully Russian[0]. [0] https://meduza.io/cards/kak-v-rossii-presleduyut-za-prizyvy-...

I'm more inclined to trust nonpartisan independent Pew Research than your opinion. It's not the only independent survey either. There's also survey evidence from before the occupation.

Polls before occupation were in the range of 40-60%. If that's a good enough metric for conducting drive-by referenda under the watchful eye of heavily armed 'observers', someone tell the Catalonians and the Scots about this option (among many others).

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#348

Post by Siira »

jlgaddis wrote: post #183
Siira wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Iranian, I have to say that while your last sentence might be true (Saudi Arabia sucks after all), I'd still rather live in a world where the opposing superpower would pressure my country to respect human rights and stop funding terrorism, fundamentalism, and misinformation. (See what North Korea's effective foreign immunity has brought its people.) This, of course, is hypocritical on the US part, but hypocrisy…

Thanks for sharing your perspective as an Iranian, I find it quite interesting. I'm curious if: 1) you still live in Iran and/or have immediate family who do? 2) is your opinion common amongst Iranians (and/or Persians)? 3) do/would you still feel the same way if the sanctions brought extreme economic hardship on the people of Iran? (Considering your remark about North Korea, I'm assuming the answer to the latter is…

1) I and almost all my (even distant) family live in Iran.

2) I don’t know. I know there is a minority (again no idea how big) that really likes Trump because they really hate the Islamic regime, but these people tend to be poor (? Again not that sure) and have little grasp of economics or international politics.

3) The current sanctions have brought extreme hardships on us Iranians. From my own selfish viewpoint, I am hoping for much lighter sanctions from the potential Biden presidency. I would, however, prefer the harsh sanctions to the IR ever having nuclear bombs. (Not that I can see them being effective at preventing the bombs.) I am also not poor; I think a high-pressure strategy that results in a mass revolution by the poor can be to their medium term advantage (such a revolution would, of course, hurt the middle/upper classes a lot). But such a revolution might very well be impossible by the modern technology and the centralization of power. So to summarize, I think effective sanctions will be worth the hardships they cause, but ineffective sanctions not. The current hard sanctions seem ineffective to me unless they are made much more stringent (which might not be possible) or are paired with military interventions.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#349

Post by Siira »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #185
Siira wrote: post #128

I am Persian. From what I gather, the middle-plus class here still mostly believes that changing the regime is costly and risky (especially since it might very well lead to a civil war, as the regime has no humanity and has shown that it will kill every single one of the people to survive). These sanctions certainly help align our incentives more with the US agenda, but they do not seem to be enough after all. Obama'…

I have basically no background in the subject, but I'd be interested in your perspectives if you feel like answering any of these questions: - What are the United States' goals with respect to Iran? - What goals of Iran's are being hindered, objected to, or otherwise meddled with by the United States? - In the end, dictators know that the Western block is finicky, unstable, and short-termish; This makes it so that hi…

1 & 2) I do not have any expert knowledge on this, and doing web searches will provide better answers. But I can tell you that the only point of contention that the people also care about is security. The middle-east is a warzone, and people rightly think they need some defenses. The regime goes about this with their (effective) tactics of starting/funding foreign terrorist/militia organizations, and their ballistic and nuclear programs. If the Western block could somehow satisfy this need for security, the regime’s bad actions will become a lot more unpopular. (Of course, the Western bloc can’t do that because they can’t promise anything durable. They also abandoned the Shah, which doesn’t set a reassuring precedent.)

3) Yes. Even compromising is made more dangerous; E.g., Obama definitely paid a risk premium in his deal. The Iranian side factored in the possibility of the US annulling the agreement when they agreed to it. Inconsistency in foreign policy sucks A LOT.

4) A solution to Iran being a shitty country to live in, and things getting worse almost every single year. I also meant a solution to Iran exporting shittiness to the world, but immigration doesn’t help with this part.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#350

Post by CKN23-ARIN »

DetroitThrow wrote: post #332
CKN23-ARIN wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than GCP, which US based cloud providers do this?

AWS: https://reclaimthenet.org/amazon-aws-iran-proxies-vpn-sancti... I'm not sure Azure has been available for Iranian IPs for the past few years or ever, feel free to Google "Azure Blocked Iran" though - plenty of petitions.

AWS and Azure prevent Iran-based users from having an account, but if you have an account, you can exchange traffic with Iranian IPs. GCP blocks traffic to/from Iranian IPs for all users. It sounded to me like GP was referring to the latter type of blocking.
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