
Tell HN: GitHub deleted anti-censorship activist repositories - zzzcpan
Github just deleted ValdikSS [1] account and all of his repositories.<p>Including GoodbyeDPI, bypassing some DPI-based censorship, and Super-UEFIinSecureBoot-Disk, allowing to boot things when secure boot is enabled. The interesting thing is that he recently published some work [2] breaking UEFI secure boot (not on github, but on zeronet), basically undermining Microsoft, current owner of Github and big pusher of UEFI.<p>His twitter account confirming that: twitter.com&#x2F;ValdikSS<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ValdikSS<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;habr.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;post&#x2F;446238&#x2F;
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ValdikSS
No, Github DID NOT delete my account. My account is hidden from public
(shadowban).

No, this is likely not because of GoodbyeDPI or Super UEFIinSecureBoot Disk.

Most probably it's because of someone has been spamming from my ISP's /24 IP
range.

>His twitter account confirming that: twitter.com/ValdikSS

No, learn to read.

~~~
Wowfunhappy
I want to upvote you because you're the original author and thus your comment
is super relevent, but I think the last sentence of your post violates this
site's guidelines. What in your tweet was misinterpreted?

~~~
ValdikSS
>but I think the last sentence of your post violates this site's guidelines

I'm really getting pissed off when people overinterpret other people texts and
create "news" based on their biased misinterpretation. What I stated in
twitter post is that any company can do anything with your data or account,
and you should not rely on any free service on the internet. That's it, only
that. I did not say that my github account is deleted or that the reason
behind that is one of my repository.

Moreover, for some reason people tend to read only that first tweet while what
I wanted to say is in next 5 tweets too.

My primary language is Russian, and I'm usually very cautious of my written
language and always try to write any texts (emails, blog posts, Russian
craiglist listings) as clear, unambiguously and literate as possible, but
always see people who just don't read. This is not an insult, I mean it
literally: PLEASE learn to read in full.

~~~
tasuki
> This is not an insult, I mean it literally: PLEASE learn to read in full.

I find it amusing that wanting other people to learn to read can be and often
is considered insulting. Perhaps there's also a bit of a culture clash -
Russians are relatively direct.

Spending your time trying to write clearly and unambiguously likely won't be
appreciated much, but it does make the world a better place.

~~~
dwild
> I find it amusing that wanting other people to learn to read can be and
> often is considered insulting.

It's an insult when that person does know how to do it.

This issue wasn't related with his capacity to read either, which further
enhance how it was used as an insult.

It was a misunderstanding, that's all. No one is specifically responsible for
it.

~~~
nie
I don't see what your are arguing at all. I see full intend of abusing the
"misunderstanding" to push fake news. We should be more cautious to the
adversary trends lately instead of focusing on someone's own feeling.

------
clucas
One of the most terrifying parts of 1984 (the Orwell novel, not the year) for
me was the memory hole - a physical hole in every office where paper
containing illegal ideas or "wrong" information was dumped to be immediately
incinerated. So much of what we know about the past and who we are today comes
from the written record and interpretations thereof - it was basically erasing
history as it happened.

For a long time, we didn't really have to worry about this sort of thing,
because the physical infrastructure required for such a system didn't exist,
would be prohibitively expensive to create, and would likely lead to massive
protests if someone tried to create it.

But now we are in the digital age, and we have slowly been creating our own
memory hole infrastructure, bit by bit, in the form of centralized cloud
services. This deletion is an example.

Now, these service providers should be (have to be) allowed to remove whatever
they want from their platform, but the fact that they can do so should be
front and center in everyone's mind when they post content to them, be it code
or text or video. We should be patronizing alternatives to github, youtube,
facebook, and all other large centralized data stores as much as possible.

~~~
brlewis
Since git users keep complete copies as a matter of course, the effect of
github deletions is less dramatic. I realize this doesn't help for related
information such as issue discussion.

~~~
crooked-v
On this note, I'm surprised there's still no de facto standard for having web
UI issues associated with a repo actually be powered off text files committed
in a subfolder.

~~~
coldacid
There have been a few different projects for tracking issues as objects in Git
storage, but they all do things in slightly different (incompatible) ways and
none have gained enough mindshare to be commonly used. My guess is that none
will ever gain enough mindshare without being packaged in with git itself,
either, so we got ourselves a chicken and egg problem.

------
dejaime
I'll just leave this here

[https://web.archive.org/web/20190412171819/https:/twitter.co...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190412171819/https:/twitter.com/ValdikSS/status/1116066219281592320)

[https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://github.com/ValdikSS](https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://github.com/ValdikSS)

------
techntoke
Unfortunately we live in a time where there is no money in doing the right
thing. If you want to work on replacing these monopolies, save up your money
and try to budget the best you can. It's sad that a decentralized GitHub
doesn't exist yet backed by IPFS. It's unfortunate the direction browser
companies is more invasive web technologies that enable sites to track your
every move. You are competing against billions, if not trillions, of dollars
when you want to challenge the status quo. These companies know that
eventually you'll need money and they'll buy you and all your friends up to
stop making things better and to join them in their mission.

~~~
TimJRobinson
There is a decentralized GitHub: [https://github.com/noffle/git-ssb-
intro](https://github.com/noffle/git-ssb-intro)

~~~
techntoke
It isn't even open source and appears to have very little active development.
Very poor quality overall. No one would switch away for something like this.

------
aaomidi
This person has PERSONALLY helped millions of Iranians to get out of the
internet censorship there.

So much love and respect for you, ValdikSS.

------
rolph
The underlying theory is still about [1] There is some code of use get it
quick [2] I also found an MS blurb about UEFI [3]

This apparently requires a Kaspersky rescue GRUB

" Red Hat GRUB Secure Boot repository[2], the only problem—PE header parser is
missing. GRUB gets parsed header from shim, in a response to a function call
via a special protocol. This could be easily fixed by porting the appropriate
code from the shim or PreLoader to GRUB."

[1] [https://habr.com/en/post/446238/](https://habr.com/en/post/446238/)

[2]
[https://github.com/rhboot/grub2/tree/grub-2.02-sb](https://github.com/rhboot/grub2/tree/grub-2.02-sb)

[3] [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Hardware-
Cert...](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Hardware-
Certification/Microsoft-UEFI-CA-Signing-policy-
updates/ba-p/364828?advanced=false&collapse_discussion=true&q=uefi&search_type=thread)

------
chirau
He was shadowbanned, not deleted.

Also, not as righteous as everyone makes him out to be. The dude was hosting
torrents on things like Christchurch shootings in his repos. His content
probably violated some terms of service.

~~~
driverdan
> The dude was hosting torrents on things like Christchurch shootings in his
> repos.

He had links in gists. What terms does this violate? Shouldn't they remove it
or warn him rather than locking / shadowbanning his whole account?

~~~
chirau
He was warned several times before

~~~
ValdikSS
That's not true.

~~~
chirau
From your Twitter:

"I have other torrents in gists, and I used to have blocked repository for
which Github contacted me prior to blocking this exact repository, asking to
remove some files from it. This time I've got no notifications and got my
account (not a repo/gist/etc) shadowed."

~~~
ValdikSS
It was only once when my repository got take down by government request, and
that time I got a notification prior any actions from Github, after which they
restricted access to only said repository from Russia only. I never had
problems with data (incl. bittorrent links) in gists or warnings about that.

------
aasasd
Apparently the account is not deleted but shadowbanned, according to his
Twitter: the guy can still create issues and repos, only they're invisible.

~~~
zobzu
TIL that github shadowbans.

~~~
coldacid
It's the hottest new form of censorship.

------
tracker1
Hoping (s)he reposts to Gitlab, or sets up a self-hosted instance, it's a
shame this he is being blocked, though without the weight of github itself,
it's unlikely to get past a lot of the nation state firewalls originally done
so with.

------
swayvil
Remember when Microsoft bought Github? Remember when lots of people said it
was perfectly ok and nothing shady would happen as a result?

For every act of evil that we see Microsoft commit there are 20 that we don't
see. Remember that.

~~~
penagwin
Before you start blaming Microsoft for this just get some popcorn and read the
current threads.

Sidenote: Github had these same rules and did ban people long before Microsoft
was in the picture. I wouldn't be too quick to conclude Microsoft made the
difference here.

------
shmageggy
Would some of these tools fall under the DCMA by virtue of "circumventing
access-control measures" [1]? If so some of the hate being directed at
Microsoft might be better directed at US lawmakers.

[1] [http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/circumventing-copyright-
cont...](http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/circumventing-copyright-controls)

------
xvilka
Well, this kind of behavior was predicted the very moment GitHub announced
acquisition by Microsoft. No way they make something good for the humanity.

------
ilyaigpetrov
> [flagged] Tell HN: GitHub deleted anti-censorship activist repositories

Why was this thread flagged? A misleading thread title?

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chris_mc
So everyone start putting the content of that repo (I am sure someone forked
it) in every one of your repos, especially ones other people use, and see how
GitHub reacts.

------
aldoushuxley001
Didn't think Microsoft would move so quickly to censor Github, but alas...
this is why I moved to gitlab.

