On Tue, Jun 22, 2021 at 4:42 AM Sebastian Rittau <srittau@rittau.biz> wrote:
Am 22.06.21 um 10:00 schrieb Tiziano Zito:
I think it is important to notice that GitHub actively blocks user registration and activity from countries that are sanctioned by the US government. At least in 2019 GitHub was blocking users from IPs located in Cuba, North Corea, Syria, Crimea, Iran, etc (see for example [1]). They block, of course, users of any nationality, if they happen to be traveling or living in those countries.
I could not find any clear official statement from GitHub, but I think this is something to consider nonetheless, especially now that the Python community is making great efforts to become more welcoming and diverse. The fact of excluding a significant part of the potential contributors based on a random list by a random government over which the Python community as a whole has no influence whatsoever seems a move in the wrong direction.
I was overall in favor of moving Python issues over to GitHub, for convenience, easier access, and a more usable interface. But I think the issue above is a showstopper. This problem of course already exists for pull requests, but discriminating against users based on their place of residence is absolutely unacceptable to me. In fact, it is directly in violation to the PSF's mission statement that says in part: "... to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers." This issue hasn't been addresses in PEP 581, so I believe it wasn't considered when accepting the PEP. But it's serious enough that I would like to ask the steering council to reconsider their decision to accept PEP 581.
As much as we might wish otherwise, the PSF is also a US entity and has to comply with US laws. GitHub's official policy at https://docs.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-and-trade-controls gives the impression that they're reading the law as narrowly as possible, and allowing access to every person that they legally can. In particular, that policy page claims that there are no restrictions on users from Cuba or Iran, and that users from Syria and Crimea are allowed to participate in OSS projects, just not give GitHub money. (They do disallow use by North Koreans and "Specially Designated Nationals".) It is even possible for the PSF to do better without breaking the law? I'm not an expert in this area at all, so happy to be educated if so... -n -- Nathaniel J. Smith -- https://vorpus.org