How GitHub blocked me (and all my libraries)

My name is Nikolay. I’m a web developer from Moscow, Russia. My hobby is writing Open Source libraries ( libphonenumber-js , react-phone-number-input , relative-time-format , javascript-time-ago , react-responsive-ui , read-excel-file , virtual-scroller , imageboard , captchan universal imageboard frontend ) and I really enjoy it. Like others, I’ve been happily using GitHub ( @catamphetamine ) as the primary way of reaching out to people and publishing the source codes. Until recently.

On March 9th, 2020, GitHub banned my account without any notice for an unknown reason. I found out about that only when people started sending me emails telling me that my hosted libraries have stopped working and asking me why did I delete my GitHub account (I didn’t). Apparently, for any person other than me, when navigating to any of my libraries’ page, GitHub simply displayed a “404 Not found” page. Not even a “user account suspended” page — nothing. Just as if the person didn’t exist, and all their libraries too. GitHub, if you’re banning someone then at least have some balls to publicly admit it.

The ban resulted in at least tens of thousands of people using my libraries not being able to access the source codes, not being able to report bugs or seek assistance when they’re stuck. Some of my libraries also relied on “GitHub Pages” for hosting “static” assets (for example, country flag icons), and those have stopped working properly as a result.

The only hint from GitHub was when I navigated to their website and (only for me) it showed a notification at the top saying: “Your account has been flagged. Because of that, your profile is hidden from the public. If you believe this is a mistake, contact support to have your account status reviewed” . I’ve sent a support request to GitHub, Inc. as soon as I found out about the issue (Ticket ID: 594578). It has been a week now and they haven’t responded.

What could possibly be the reason of the ban? Maybe one of my repos contained a mysterious “blacklisted” word? Or maybe I’ve called someone a moron on the internet? Geez, GitHub. Whatever that could possibly be, it surely doesn’t justify silently blocking off a bunch of useful open-source projects tens of thousands of people rely on in production every day.

Also, apparently, all my comments in all issues in all other repos have instantly disappeared for anyone other than me, and some of those comments contained a lot of really useful and valuable information/knowledge/solutions. While git version control itself makes sure that you don’t lose your code when GitHub, Inc. decides to block you, the same isn’t true for all your other intellectual property in the form of numerous comments you’ve posted in issues/pull-requests/commits/etc (including your employer’s paid repos). It’s funny how GitHub, Inc.’s marketing is all about “sharing” and “co-creating”, and at the same time look how easily they’re stripping the community of all the source codes and knowledge base the people (not them) have collectively created with their time and effort (should I remind you that numerous people have contributed to my repos both in the form of code commits and issue comments) just to maniacally hunt down one guy who just happened to fall out of favor for an unknown reason. Isn’t it what’s called a “loose cannon”? And we’re trusting it with all our sources.

This incident should teach us all that corporations are still corporations, even when proclaimed the heart of open source, even when they’ve played a huge role in growing the open source community to its current state. The main focus of every corporation are good “public relations” image and silky-smooth operation. This giant machine can be your best friend as long as you’re good for the business. But if you accidentally happen to get in its way, it’ll simply screw you over and won’t even notice. If tomorrow a corporate lawyer decides they need to cover their corporate ass more tightly — be it international sanctions , dodging any potential lawsuits from vocal minorities , or anything else — they won’t think twice: they’ll readily dispose of anyone and betray any “ideals” they used to claim they stand for.