GitHub is censored in Spain as the government attempts to silence Catalan protestors
It appears that Freedom of Association is a uniquely American principle, as – across the globe – in China as well as Europe, governments don't take too kindly to organized dissent, even when that organization takes place in the digital space.
The Spanish government has quietly begun censoring GitHub repositories in response to mounting Catalan protests.
On October 14, the Spanish supreme court sentenced nine pro-independence Catalan politicians to prison sentences ranging from between nine to 13 years – for “sedition” and the roles they played in the Catalan referendum on independence back in 2017.
Following the sentencing, protests have raged through the streets of autonomous Catalonia, in retaliation.
The Catalonia independence movement seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain and, by extension, the independence of North Catalonia from France and that of other Catalan Countries.
What is Tsunami Democràtic?
One new pro-independence group, Tsunami Democràtic, organizes digitally online and is known for the mass occupation of Barcelona’s El Prat airport by an estimated 10,000 protesters.
The group promotes its activities on Twitter and Telegram where they have hundreds of thousands of followers. It also has a website hosted on Github as well as an encrypted communication app that's also available on Github.
The group have told citizens to download the app as it's the app that will be used for future organization of events, as well as also being used to help protestors evade police detection – something that has been essential to organization in the Hong Kong protests .
The app uses geolocation and end-to-end protocols to make sure that only trusted and verified users have access. Verification takes place through the scanning of a QR code of an already-verified member.
In the region, Android is the most common smartphone operating system. But, since the app isn't available on the Google Play store, where other Android apps are often found, the APK file containing the app needs to be downloaded and manually installed on a phone.
The APK has been, until this point, hosted on the software development platform GitHub.
It's for this reason that the Spanish government has begun to block GitHub in the country, cutting off access to all users. Over the last week, several Spanish internet service providers have blocked access to the service.
Spain is blocking @github to fight against #Catalan activists. This crazy decision can affect a lot of companies and individuals, not even related to #Catalonia . This is an example of how digital activism is surpassing an administration. Cc @WIRED
GitHub is now blocked here in Spain, because Catalan pro-democracy and human rights activists #TsunamiDemocratic uses it to host their mobile app. This is insane in so many ways that I don't quite know where to begin. https://t.co/1dHAfYwAV9
https://reclaimthenet.org/github-spain-blocked-catalan-protests/
#why #spain #censorship #protests
It appears that Freedom of Association is a uniquely American principle, as – across the globe – in China as well as Europe, governments don't take too kindly to organized dissent, even when that organization takes place in the digital space.
The Spanish government has quietly begun censoring GitHub repositories in response to mounting Catalan protests.
On October 14, the Spanish supreme court sentenced nine pro-independence Catalan politicians to prison sentences ranging from between nine to 13 years – for “sedition” and the roles they played in the Catalan referendum on independence back in 2017.
Following the sentencing, protests have raged through the streets of autonomous Catalonia, in retaliation.
The Catalonia independence movement seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain and, by extension, the independence of North Catalonia from France and that of other Catalan Countries.
What is Tsunami Democràtic?
One new pro-independence group, Tsunami Democràtic, organizes digitally online and is known for the mass occupation of Barcelona’s El Prat airport by an estimated 10,000 protesters.
The group promotes its activities on Twitter and Telegram where they have hundreds of thousands of followers. It also has a website hosted on Github as well as an encrypted communication app that's also available on Github.
The group have told citizens to download the app as it's the app that will be used for future organization of events, as well as also being used to help protestors evade police detection – something that has been essential to organization in the Hong Kong protests .
The app uses geolocation and end-to-end protocols to make sure that only trusted and verified users have access. Verification takes place through the scanning of a QR code of an already-verified member.
In the region, Android is the most common smartphone operating system. But, since the app isn't available on the Google Play store, where other Android apps are often found, the APK file containing the app needs to be downloaded and manually installed on a phone.
The APK has been, until this point, hosted on the software development platform GitHub.
It's for this reason that the Spanish government has begun to block GitHub in the country, cutting off access to all users. Over the last week, several Spanish internet service providers have blocked access to the service.
Spain is blocking @github to fight against #Catalan activists. This crazy decision can affect a lot of companies and individuals, not even related to #Catalonia . This is an example of how digital activism is surpassing an administration. Cc @WIRED
GitHub is now blocked here in Spain, because Catalan pro-democracy and human rights activists #TsunamiDemocratic uses it to host their mobile app. This is insane in so many ways that I don't quite know where to begin. https://t.co/1dHAfYwAV9
https://reclaimthenet.org/github-spain-blocked-catalan-protests/
#why #spain #censorship #protests
Twitter
Jordi Tarrida
Hi @github @GitHubHelp @GitHubCommunity, are you aware that Spain is arbitrarily blocking access to some parts of your website? https://t.co/F5AZBG52Av is not accessible from any Spanish IP. This is an attack to the freedom of speech. Are you going to tolerate…