Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
People should resist the temptation to defend this.<p>1. Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Note that the vast majority of websites do not do this. Even big ones, such as Gmail, do not do this.<p>2. It does not speak well of the United States justice system if someone could be prosecuted for failure to block Iranian IPs. If this were required, the law should be clear. Otherwise, the US citizens deserve not to be in fear of prosecution.<p>3. Beyond IP-blocking, if the US government wants to require companies to go actively fishing for possible Iranian accounts, it should clearly codify this. Otherwise, companies should not have to fear prosecution.<p>Summary: Gitlab should grow a pair, and Americans should ask themselves if this kind of legal uncertainty is desirable.<p>Finally, legal effort to make websites inaccessible in Iran is entirely incompatible with being taken seriously when complaining about internet freedom in Iran.<p>Note that this goes so far that the entire Google Cloud network blocks Iranian IPs, including any and all services and websites hosted there, including say resources that might provide valuable information to regime opponents.