How US Sanctions Are Silencing GitHub Users Worldwide

GitHub is facing a supply‑chain crisis caused by U.S. sanctions, which now limit the ability of users in sanctioned regions to use private repositories and certain GitHub services.

One of the first reported cases involves Anatoliy Kashkin, a maintainer of the GameHub project living in Crimea. GitHub notified him that, due to U.S. trade‑control laws, his account is restricted: he can only access free public repositories, cannot create or maintain private ones, and existing private repos have been disabled.

Similar restrictions have affected Iranian developers. Hamed Saeedi, who has used GitHub since 2012, received an email stating his account was blocked under the claim that he was developing nuclear weapons. His personal GitHub Pages site returned a 404 error, and all private repositories were disabled, with git clone returning a 403 error.

GitHub Pages sites become inaccessible (404). Existing private repositories are disabled; cloning returns 403. Creating new private repositories is prohibited. Public repositories can be created but not deleted.

The restrictions also impact Iranian‑origin developers living abroad, such as an Iranian‑Finnish engineer, whose GitHub account was similarly limited despite residing in Finland.

Community members have suggested several workarounds: exporting data from private repos, migrating to GitLab (which currently offers unlimited private repositories), or using self‑hosted solutions like Gitea that are not based in the United States. However, access to GitLab may also be blocked in Crimea, and other platforms could eventually face similar sanctions.

Some developers have managed to rebuild their GitHub Pages sites after receiving a hint from a GitHub employee, but the employee has not answered questions regarding private repository access.

The overall advice emphasizes the importance of regularly backing up code and being prepared for sudden service restrictions caused by geopolitical factors.

Resources mentioned include the GitHub‑Do‑Not‑Ban‑Us repository, Hamed Saeedi’s Medium article, the GameHub issue discussing the restrictions, and the Hacker News discussion thread.