Microsoft platform restricts users in sanctioned countries

Software development hosting company GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, has posted details on its website of new rules, which, it says, will mean that users in ‘US sanctioned countries and territories’ will be restricted – with some services available ‘for free individual and free organizational GitHub.com accounts.’

The company said: ‘If GitHub determines that a user or customer is located in a region that is subject to U.S. trade control restrictions, or a user is otherwise restricted under U.S. economic sanctions, then the affiliated account has been restricted to comply with those legal requirements. The determination of user and customer location to implement these legal restrictions are derived from a number of sources, including IP addresses and payment history. Nationality and ethnicity are not used to flag users for sanctions restrictions.’

The exceptions it said, for free, individual and ‘organizational’ accounts, include, ‘limited access to GitHub public repository services (such as access to GitHub Pages and public repositories used for open source projects), for personal communications only, and not for commercial purposes.’