Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-2024
Abstract
The GitHub platform has fueled the creation of truly global software, enabling contributions from developers across various geographical regions of the world. As software becomes more entwined with global politics and social regulations, it becomes similarly subject to government sanctions. In 2019, GitHub restricted access to certain services for users in specific locations but rolled back these restrictions for some communities (e.g., the Iranian community) in 2021. We conducted a largescale empirical study, collecting approximately 156 thousand user profiles and their 41 million activity points from 2008 to 2022, to understand the response of developers. Our results indicate that many of these targeted developers were able to navigate through the sanctions. Furthermore, once these sanctions were lifted, these developers opted to return to GitHub instead of withdrawing their contributions to the platform. The study indicates that platforms like GitHub play key roles in sustaining global contributions to Open Source Software.
Keywords
Government Sanctions, Open Source
Discipline
Software Engineering
Research Areas
Software and Cyber-Physical Systems
Publication
IEEE Software
First Page
1
Last Page
4
ISSN
0740-7459
Identifier
10.1109/MS.2024.3505204
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Citation
FAN, Youmei; Hovhannisyan Ani; HATA, Hideaki; TREUDE, Christoph; and KULA, Raula G..
The impact of sanctions on GitHub developers and activities. (2024). IEEE Software. 1-4.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/9837
Copyright Owner and License
Author-CC-BY
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2024.3505204