https://github.blog/2021-01-05-advancing-developer-freedom-github-is-fully-available-in-iran/

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January 5, 2021

Company

Advancing developer freedom: GitHub is fully available in Iran

 
Image of Nat Friedman

Nat Friedman

All developers should be free to use GitHub, no matter where they
live. At the same time, GitHub respects and abides by US law, which
means government sanctions have limited our ability to provide
developers in some countries the full range of GitHub services.

Today we are announcing a breakthrough: we have secured a license
from the US government to offer GitHub to developers in Iran. This
includes all services for individuals and organizations, private and
public, free and paid.

So what happened here?

The US has long imposed broad sanctions on multiple countries,
including Iran. These sanctions prohibit any US company from doing
business with anyone in a sanctioned country. (These sanctions can
also apply to non-US companies whose activities directly or
indirectly involve the US, including merely having payments that flow
through US banks or payment mechanisms like Visa.)

And so in 2019, GitHub implemented access restrictions for developers
in Iran and several other countries to comply with US sanctions laws.
At the same time, in keeping with our goal of making GitHub available
to everyone, we also immediately took two other actions:

First, even as we complied with sanctions, we went to great lengths
to keep as much of GitHub available to as many developers as possible
under US sanctions laws, making public repos available even in
sanctioned countries.

And separately, we took our case to the Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC), part of the US Treasury Department, and began a
lengthy and intensive process of advocating for broad and open access
to GitHub in sanctioned countries.

Over the course of two years, we were able to demonstrate how
developer use of GitHub advances human progress, international
communication, and the enduring US foreign policy of promoting free
speech and the free flow of information. We are grateful to OFAC for
the engagement which has led to this great result for developers.

We are in the process of rolling back all restrictions on developers
in Iran, and reinstating full access to affected accounts. For
developers who have questions or need help with their accounts,
please visit our help page.

We still have more work to do. We want every developer to be able to
collaborate on GitHub, and we are working with the US government to
secure similar licenses for developers in Crimea and Syria as well.
Stay tuned.

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