github / gov-takedowns

Text of government takedown notices as received. GitHub does not endorse or adopt any assertion contained in the following notices.

What is this?

From time to time, GitHub receives requests from governments to remove content that has been declared unlawful in their local jurisdiction. Although we may not always agree with those laws, we may need to block content if we receive a complete request from a government official so that our users in that jurisdiction may continue to have access to GitHub to collaborate and build software.

What is a complete government takedown request?

To count as a complete request, a request or notice must

• come from a relevant, official government agency
• identify illegal content
• specify the source of illegality in that jurisdiction (law or court order).

What happens when we receive a complete takedown request from a government?

When we receive a notice from a relevant, official government agency that identifies illegal content and specifies the source of the illegality, we

• notify the affected users of the specific content that allegedly violates the law, and that this is a legal takedown request
• allow the affected users to appeal the decision as part of that notification
• limit the geographic scope of the takedown when possible and include that as part of the notification
• post the official request that led to the takedown in this repository.

Why do we publicly post takedown notices?

We are concerned about Internet censorship, and believe that transparency on a specific and ongoing level is essential to good governance. By posting the notices here, we can better inform the public about what content is being withheld from GitHub, and why. We post takedown notices here to document their potential to chill speech.

What does it mean if there's a notice posted here?

It means that we received the notice on the indicated date. It does not mean that the content was unlawful or wrong. It does not mean that the user identified in the notice has done anything wrong. We don't make or imply any judgment about the merit of the claims they make. We post these notices and requests only for informational purposes.

Transparency reporting

In addition to posting government takedown notices in this repository, we report on them in our transparency report. We also track and report in our transparency report on government takedowns based on violations of GitHub's Terms of Service. We process those violations as we would process a Terms of Service violation reported by anyone else.

Contributing

The purpose of this repository is to publicly post notices that result in GitHub blocking content that a government notifies us is illegal. GitHub created this repository for transparency with our community when we block content in response to a complete government takedown notice. We publicly post those notices, unchanged (other than redactions of personal information), because we are concerned about Internet censorship, and believe that transparency on a specific and ongoing level is essential to good governance.

Discussion in this repo should relate to this purpose.

We do not accept Pull Requests in this repository because the notices we post are verbatim from the notifying government.

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

gov-takedowns's Issues

Beijing Network Industry Association is not a qualified entity to raise a government takedown request

Hello,

I noticed the request 2021-01-22-BNIA from the Beijing Network Industry Association asking to remove several repos that allegedly violate the laws of PRC.

In the "GitHub Government Takedown Policy", a complete government takedown request is defined to "come from a relevant, official government agency".

As is stated in their self-introduction, the Beijing Network Industry Association is a "non-profit social organization legal entity" (非营利性社会团体法人机构), which is "voluntarily initiated by ISP, ICP, IDC and major Internet industrial units in Beijing".

Furthermore, according to "The overall plan for the decoupling of the industry associations and the administrative agencies" (行业协会商会与行政机关脱钩总体方案) published by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee (****办公厅) and the General Office of the State Council (国务院办公厅) and "Opinions on the implementation of the reform of decoupling the industrial associations, chambers of commerce and administrative agencies" (关于全面推开行业协会商会与行政机关脱钩改革的实施意见) published by the National Development and Reform Commission (国家发展改革委):

The sponsorship, supervisor, contact, and affiliation relationship between administrative agencies (including its subordinate units) and industry associations and chambers of commerce shall be canceled. The industry associations and chambers of commerce shall be directly registered and operate independently under the law, and no longer supervised by business supervisory units."
(取消行政机关（包括下属单位）与行业协会商会的主办、主管、联系和挂靠关系，行业协会商会依法直接登记、独立运行，不再设置业务主管单位。)

. That is, as an industrial association, the BNIA is not affiliated in any way with the government in law.

Based on those facts and legal regulations, I suppose the BNIA is neither a subsidiary department of their government nor an "official government agency". Therefore, the BNIA turns out not to be a qualified organization with the right to raise a takedown request on behalf of the government de jure or de facto.

FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE

FUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOUFUCK YOU

Not a single request from the usa?

suspicious. hahah and in some russian notices are forks?!? why would one take down a fork while the original still remains? Any proofs on that?

Takeout

Small Typo

Hi there,

I found a small typo in your README. Under the header contributing

[Contributing Guidelines](https://github.com/github/site-policy-internal/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md_

should be,

[Contributing Guidelines](https://github.com/github/site-policy-internal/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)

Hope you have a great day!

To whom it may concern

I have reason to believe that a user on your platform may be attempting to breach my license (see here).
As part of the royal family of Great Mojaveland, I request that you remove the offending content as soon as possible.

Failure to do so will result in any number of legal and/or private actions.

P.S. What is the proper way to submit these complaints in the future online?

To whom it may concern,
Royal Family of Great Mojaveland, a North American micronation

Gekht

#**@**