Github declared unacceptable for hosting GNU projects due to cooperation with Roskomnadzor



    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU project have published the results of testing four services for code hosting for compliance with GNU ethical principles - first of all, this is confidentiality and freedom of information.

    Checked services Savannah , Gitlab , Github and Sourceforge .

    As a result, each service received one of the following ratings :

    F - not acceptable for hosting.

    C - meets all basic criteria, acceptable for hosting.

    B- recommended hosting. It meets all the criteria and uses only free software on the client side, does not track users, including through advertising, does not encourage the use of non-free licenses.

    A - excellent hosting. All of the above, while working fine with JavaScript disabled, uses only free software on the client and server side, encourages the use of GPL 3+ licenses, uses the correct term “free software” instead of “open software”, clearly endorses the ideas of the free software movement, avoids the use of the term Linux without the GNU prefix when it comes to GNU / Linux.

    A + - extremely excellent hosting. All of the above, plus permission to download files without authorization, no logs on visitors, compliancerecommendations of the Electronic Frontiers Fund for online services, compliance with the WCAG 2.0 standard , all data collected on the server is exported in a machine-readable format.

    Based on the results of the check, only Savannah hosting received A rating. Gitlab hosting is recognized as minimally acceptable with a C rating, but Github and Sourceforge have been awarded the shameful rating of F.

    In particular, Github does not reach a higher C rating for two reasons:

    1. Important site functionality does not work with JavaScript disabled.
    2. Specific information may not be available for all countries, as indicated in the Roskomnadzor and Export Restrictions sections .


    In 2014-2016, Github received five notifications from Roskomnadzor demanding the removal of content about suicide methods and rules for visiting Crimea. Github acknowledges that it voluntarily blocks:

    “From time to time, Github receives requests from the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) for censorship of certain content, which is considered illegal in the Russian Federation. Although we do not always agree with this, in order to guarantee that many of our Russian users will continue to have access to Github and their collaboration, as well as to develop software, we may need to block certain content if we receive requests from Roskomnadzor. Whenever we do this, we will publish an official request, which led to a block in our repository.

    We are concerned about such Internet censorship and will make such government requests socially transparent. ”

    Such a policy casts doubt on the reliability of GNU's ethical principles, although Github’s pragmatic position is, of course, understood. Roskomnadzor has repeatedly added Github to the register of banned sites for promoting suicide of children.

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