Translated material
Battle for GitHub
The deputy head of Roskomnadzor argued with programmers about blocking services and the functions of the department
The situation around Roskomnadzor blocking became heated to the limit: on December 2, the agency ordered operators to limit access to seven pages of the service, but due to the peculiarities of the filtering mechanism of some providers, the site was blocked entirely.
Over the course of a day, the scandal grew and forced representatives of Roskomnadzor to contact the programming community, seeking support and understanding, and also trying to persuade GitHub to fulfill their demands. TJ followed the course of the conflict and chose the most reasonable statements from both sides.
Deputy head of Roskomnadzor Maxim Ksenzov at the “Blogger Day” conference Updated: On December 5, in a comment to TJ, a representative of the GitHub press service explained: the service did not delete content deemed illegal by Roskomnadzor. Instead, the resource blocked access to it for users from Russia.
As confirmed by GitHub, this was done on the basis of the site’s own rules, which require users to comply with the laws of the country in which they are located. Judging by published by GiHub, the site received two notifications from the department on October 21 and November 27. copies of letters from the RKN
On the morning of December 5, Roskomnadzor announced the restoration of access to GitHub.
What's wrong with GitHub
GitHub (GitHub) is a code hosting service that is very popular among programmers. It combines the Git file versioning system (hence the name), allowing you to automate code storage and collaboration, and combines it with a social component (searching, browsing, discussing) within its platform.
Some freelance programmers rely entirely on GitHub for their work. In the comments of the publication Geektimes , which recently spun off from the Habrakhabr programming community, you can find many complaints from developers who suffered from GitHub being unavailable even for one day.
The reason for the new GitHub block is the suicide.txt file, a humorous list of suicide methods. Its contents have been discussed more than once on social networks: although formally this is indeed a list with instructions, its frivolous style in itself cannot persuade anyone to commit suicide.
Moreover, the user who published the prohibited content on GitHub was the same as in the case of the previous blocking of the service on October 2 - someone under the nickname amdf, presumably a Russian named Mikhail Stroganov . It is not possible to determine his motives, and Stroganov still has not contacted the TJ editors two months later.
On December 2, Roskomnadzor added seven GitHub pages with prohibited content to the register, but since the site operates via the secure https protocol, not all providers have the technical ability to restrict access on a page-by-page basis. Therefore, for most users, the resource was completely blocked.
On the same day, the deputy head of Roskomnadzor, Maxim Ksenzov, spoke out, essentially saying that representatives of the service did not react in any way to the department’s demand to remove content prohibited in Russia.
The choice of the GitHub administration is to ignore the legal requirements of the authorized body and neglect the interests of clients.
— Maxim Ksenzov (@mksenzov) December 2, 2014
The rules for using GitHub state that the interaction of the service with users is subject to the laws of California, USA - it is unlikely that these laws require the administration of the service to comply with the requirements of the Russian agency. On the other hand, the same rules prohibit users from posting files that are prohibited by local law - which means that GitHub should have removed prohibited files based on this provision.
However, like many other sites, GitHub was faced with the question of whether the Russian market would lose the service or whether it would comply with the requirements of local legislation. For example, the video hosting site Vimeo, blocked on December 1 for an extremist ISIS video, was unblocked just five hours after the prohibited information was removed.
GitHub didn't respond. Angry comments began to appear under Roskomnadzor’s post on Facebook, and the news spread across the media and specialized resources. After a day of escalation of the conflict, Roskomnadzor turned to the programming community with a request for help in establishing relations with the GitHub administration.
Colleagues, I am addressing you openly and officially. I ask for assistance in organizing interaction with the administration of the GitHUb resource.
— Maxim Ksenzov (@mksenzov) December 3, 2014
This is necessary to quickly remove restrictions on access to the resource.
— Maxim Ksenzov (@mksenzov) December 3, 2014
At the same time, Ksenzov complained on his VKontakte page that due to the blocking of GitHub, hacker attacks fell on the Roskomnadzor registry websites and on the resources of the Rostelecom provider.
A tweet from the official account of Roskomnadzor deserved particular attention: the agency emphasized that responsibility for the fate of GitHub in Russia lies with the resource itself.
— Roskomnadzor (@roscomnadzor) December 3, 2014
Roskomnadzor argues with programmers
A heated discussion unfolded on Maxim Ksenzov’s VKontakte page: the deputy head of Roskomnadzor spent the entire evening of December 3 arguing with programmers. The official called those who write insults against him “ill-mannered, impolite, narcissistic characters.”
I definitely wouldn’t want such “specialists” to deal with important things on which comfort, convenience, and sometimes my life can sometimes depend. All these “young promising” people cannot be the future. No one's.
Maxim Ksenzov, Deputy Head of Roskomnadzor
According to Ksenzov, Roskomnadzor only “carries out what is prescribed by the Law,” and questions should be addressed to those who published prohibited information on GitHub.
Andrey Mima, the developer and founder of the Qbaka service, responded to Ksenzov. According to the entrepreneur, blocking an entire site because of “one link” is unacceptable, and responsibility lies with those who made the resource unavailable to “millions of normal people.”
You're not being evicted from your house because there's a drug addict in it, are you? It is impossible to even imagine such a situation that an entire house would be thrown out into the cold because a drug den appeared in one apartment. There can be no justification for this. Let us then block the entire Internet, for every sneeze of a district court or the whim of an investigator who did not like some ironic video, if the law requires it.
Andrey Mima, founder of Qbaka
According to Ksenzov, two years ago “specially trained people recognized in the global Internet community” developed Roskomnadzor recommendations for operators on how to block resources. The providers themselves are in no hurry to follow them, since the purchase and installation of equipment is expensive, but the rules will be approved by the end of the year.
Andrei Gein, who is involved in educational programs at SKB Kontur, reproached Roskomnadzor for the fact that blocking one “important resource” may not correspond to the effect of combating harmful content on the network, which is what the agency is responsible for. Ksenzov objected that although he understands the consequences, he has no right to judge the importance of the resource - according to him, the decision to block was made not by Roskomnadzor, but by Rospotrebnadzor.
We don't protect the Internet. From nothing. The blocking of GitHub, judging by the reaction of a large number of people, is a negative event for the IT industry. Quite massive. I can only appeal to the recklessness of individual users and the indifference of the Github administration to them.
Maxim Ksenzov, Deputy Head of Roskomnadzor
VKontakte employee Anton Rosenberg accused Ksenzov of discrepancies in his words. In a May interview with Izvestia , the official said: “If at some point we assess that the consequences of “turning off” social networks will be less significant compared to the harm that the unconstructive position of the management of international companies causes to Russian society, then we will do that what they are required to do by law," that is, he stated that the department could make a decision on blocking based on its assessment. On December 2, Ksenzov already stated that he, as an official, cannot have an evaluative opinion.
The official said he could not decide whether the text in the suicide.txt file actually contained “potentially harmful information.” “I seriously believe that it is not up to me to decide. I’m not a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, not a doctor after all,” Ksenzov explained.
Another developer reproached the department for missing at least one working deadline due to the inaccessibility of GitHub. In response to this, Ksenzov said that such a situation must be spelled out in the user agreement of the service.
Commentators drew the attention of the deputy head of Roskomnadzor to the small number of likes to his answers and suggested that Internet users generally hate the agency and its representatives. “They hate it, yes. But in 1917, 1916 or even earlier, someone (perhaps hated by the people) did not do his job, and for 70 years the country ceased to be itself,” Ksenzov retorted.
VKontakte developer Oleg Illarionov compared blocking GitHub to blowing up an oil field. In response, Ksenzov suggested that Illarionov create a similar resource in Russia, bearing in mind that such a site would have to obey the requirements of Roskomnadzor.
It seems to me that you don’t understand that IT is 99.9 percent of the economy and well-being in a very tangible number of years, energy resources will very soon cost pennies, but technologies and specialists will become more expensive before our eyes. The current legislative direction puts an end to Russia as an IT player of the future. Blocking GitHub is like blowing up a major oil field 80 years ago. Imagine what would happen if all oil and gas were destroyed in Russia under religious and ethical pretexts throughout the country, what would the economy be like now? This is what you do.
Oleg Illarionov, VKontakte developer
One of the commentators emphasized that last time the GitHub block was lifted only after the author of the prohibited file himself deleted it from the resource. Ksenzov said that GitHub should ban such users.
Several panelists spoke about the outflow of developers from Russia caused by government interference in the Internet, and the increased demand for VPN services due to Roskomnadzor blocking.
I work for a company that develops software for the public sector. We actively used open source software and, of course, Github. I decided to quit, fortunately there was already a better offer from a foreign employer. All desire to promote the development of the IT industry in Russia has disappeared. The Github blocking was the last straw. Thank you for opening my eyes to what was happening and helping me make the right decision.
Roman Salin, developer of the Document Management System
Having finished the discussion late in the evening, but without getting a reaction from the GitHub administration, Ksenzov left.
Thanks everyone. After reading everything, I fall asleep convinced that I am right.
— Maxim Ksenzov (@mksenzov) December 3, 2014
And the developers turned on VPN,
Nikita Likhachev,
TJ
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