In Russia they began to restrict access to GitHub

Russians complain about the inability to access repositories or download files

The Internet censorship tracking service OONI has recorded a decrease in the availability in Russia of the largest platform for hosting IT projects and their joint development, GitHub, Vorstka noted.

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The availability of the service began to decline on May 5, when the number of anomalous and unsuccessful connections to the site increased to 10%; on May 6, the figure reached 16% and continues to remain at this level. Earlier in April, the average anomaly value did not exceed 4%.

In other countries, such as the US, UK and Germany, according to OONI, there is no such trend.

Experts are still finding it difficult to answer what exactly is happening with GitHub

Some users have also reported difficulties connecting to the platform from Russia. According to the Downdetector service, there are no major failures in GitHub, however, Russians leave complaints about the inability to access repositories or download files.

In a conversation with Vorstka, an RKS Global project expert noted that it is still difficult to say what exactly is happening with the platform infrastructure itself.

“According to user reports, GitHub does not work within Crimea and similar territories. As for the problems with GitHub already within Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are several theories. For example, this may indicate the beginning of disguise via SNI under GitHub. Or the authorities began to more actively block subnets of different CDNs, such as Fastly, which is why GitHub was also affected,” said RKS.

GitHub is not in the Roskomnadzor registry of prohibited sites, but more than 130 pages of the service are prohibited

At the same time, GitHub is not in the register of prohibited sites of Roskomnadzor, that is, the service is not officially blocked. However, more than 130 pages of the portal have already been included in this list by decision of the courts, the RKN, Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

As Vorstka discovered, the number of GitHub pages added to the registry increased sharply in 2026, with 61 pages added since the beginning of the year. At the same time, for the entire 2025, 59 pages were added to the register, in 2024 - 16, and for 2021-2023 - only five.

According to an RKS Global expert, pages blocked directly by Roskomnadzor may be tools for bypassing blocking or LGBT materials.

“Materials blocked by decision of the Federal Tax Service are, for example, advertising for online casinos or some tools for installing applications for games. Materials blocked by an unspecified government agency (under which the Prosecutor General's Office is hidden) are usually discrediting the army , extremism , as well as fraudulent sites and scam. Blockings from the Tagansky District Court of Moscow - dissemination of personal data, for example, “Eye of God,” the expert said.

Illustration: AAPIMAGE via Reuters Connect

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