edwardstudy / 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 valid 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 happens when we receive a takedown request from a government?

When we receive a notice from an 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 dispute the decision as part of that notification
• limit the geographic scope of the takedown when possible
• 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 only 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.

Contributing

We do not accept Pull Requests in this repository. Feel free to comment or make suggestions, but note that we do not actively monitor contributions to this repository. If you would like to contact GitHub about this repository, please contact GitHub Support.