<story><title>GitHub suspends Tornado Cash developer account</title><url>https://twitter.com/semenov_roman_/status/1556717890308653059</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dcow</author><text>That is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; my view.&lt;p&gt;I am not talking about what GH is at liberty to do; clearly they can do whatever they want. I’m asking about what they’re legally bound to do as a result of these sanctions. I find the precedent here more fascinating and troublesome (as an open source author myself) than the instance of the code in question.</text></item><item><author>323</author><text>ISIS recruiting manuals and videos are also free speech. According to your view YouTube&amp;#x2F;Microsoft should not remove them.&lt;p&gt;Beside the fact that GH is a private company that maybe doesn&amp;#x27;t want to be associated with some stuff.</text></item><item><author>dcow</author><text>I understand that GitHub is just taking immediate actions in a way they perceive as being compliant with the law. The question is more existential: since source source code is speech, can the government even sanction it? And &lt;i&gt;should&lt;/i&gt; GH fight this if they want to remain a reliable platform for publishing code? What even is GH required to do in response to this sanction, or are they just being overly cautious since we’re in uncharted waters?</text></item><item><author>altairprime</author><text>Related, today:&lt;p&gt;“U.S. Treasury Sanctions Virtual Currency Mixer Tornado Cash” &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=32386189&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=32386189&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Specifically:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;all property and interests in property of the entity above, Tornado Cash, that is in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons is blocked and must be reported to OFAC.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item><item><author>wyxuan</author><text>Tornado Cash repo+website taken down as well[0], and so have many of the GH accounts that were contributors to the repo[1].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;w_y_x&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556716055296294914?s=21&amp;amp;t=3ce_KjS5AwTb-SP9hiqF-Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;w_y_x&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556716055296294914?s=21&amp;amp;t=...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;bantg&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556721709931175937?s=21&amp;amp;t=3ce_KjS5AwTb-SP9hiqF-Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;bantg&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556721709931175937?s=21&amp;amp;t=...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>deeg</author><text>As we&amp;#x27;ve seen with Alex Jones even free speech is not absolute (for the record I agree with the rulings against Jones).  If the code is designed to facilitate illegal activity I can see how that could be shut down by the government.</text></comment>
<story><title>GitHub suspends Tornado Cash developer account</title><url>https://twitter.com/semenov_roman_/status/1556717890308653059</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dcow</author><text>That is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; my view.&lt;p&gt;I am not talking about what GH is at liberty to do; clearly they can do whatever they want. I’m asking about what they’re legally bound to do as a result of these sanctions. I find the precedent here more fascinating and troublesome (as an open source author myself) than the instance of the code in question.</text></item><item><author>323</author><text>ISIS recruiting manuals and videos are also free speech. According to your view YouTube&amp;#x2F;Microsoft should not remove them.&lt;p&gt;Beside the fact that GH is a private company that maybe doesn&amp;#x27;t want to be associated with some stuff.</text></item><item><author>dcow</author><text>I understand that GitHub is just taking immediate actions in a way they perceive as being compliant with the law. The question is more existential: since source source code is speech, can the government even sanction it? And &lt;i&gt;should&lt;/i&gt; GH fight this if they want to remain a reliable platform for publishing code? What even is GH required to do in response to this sanction, or are they just being overly cautious since we’re in uncharted waters?</text></item><item><author>altairprime</author><text>Related, today:&lt;p&gt;“U.S. Treasury Sanctions Virtual Currency Mixer Tornado Cash” &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=32386189&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=32386189&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Specifically:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;all property and interests in property of the entity above, Tornado Cash, that is in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons is blocked and must be reported to OFAC.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item><item><author>wyxuan</author><text>Tornado Cash repo+website taken down as well[0], and so have many of the GH accounts that were contributors to the repo[1].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;w_y_x&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556716055296294914?s=21&amp;amp;t=3ce_KjS5AwTb-SP9hiqF-Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;w_y_x&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556716055296294914?s=21&amp;amp;t=...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;bantg&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556721709931175937?s=21&amp;amp;t=3ce_KjS5AwTb-SP9hiqF-Q&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;bantg&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1556721709931175937?s=21&amp;amp;t=...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gerikson</author><text>The linked Treasury doc references Executive Order 13694, which has its own wikipedia page &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Executive_Order_13694&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Executive_Order_13694&lt;/a&gt;.</text></comment>