Perhaps you know, GitLab discusses not to hire software developers living in China and Russia.
They opened an issue to discuss this topic.
In e-group on Monday October 15, 2019 we took the decision to enable a "job family country-of-residence block" for team members who have access to customer data. This is at the expressed concern of several enterprise customers, and also what is becoming a common practice in our industry in the current geopolitical climate.
I really hate racism. Nobody can choose their nationality. In this community, there are many Chinese and Russian developers.
They always evolving the software world like us. They currently don't have any Chinese or Russian developers. But as a Turkish developer, I'm really afraid of these kinds of sanctions.
I didn't choose my government and their ideas, I didn't want to born here.
These have happened and nobody asked me.
I just thought, someone, is judging me today. I'm being judged because of the things that I didn't choose.
This isn't good. This isn't us. Even the discussion of such things is terrible.
Top comments (6)
I don't see how that is racism? That seems a bit harsh. Creating a policy to protect the personal data of your clients from potential "bad actors" that live in countries that have very different digital ethics is a good idea.
Hmmm. Do you mean every Chinese and Russian developer is a potential spy?
I know you don't say that.
But they're saying that.
I really don't like and I don't support my government. But European people always judging me when I go there. Why? Because I'm a potential supporter of the current Turkish government.
The digital ethics of their respective countries makes it difficult if not impossible to prosecute those developers in the event there is an issue with customer data loss etc.
Imagine it's your company. You're charged with the protection of your customer's data. Info like: who they are, how they pay for things, where they live, the things people care about. Now imagine you have a developer you can't prosecute for stealing that data because they live in a state that doesn't share your digital protection values.
Now you're on the hook for the potential or real damages created by the guy you hired. It's easier to just say "No we aren't going to expose ourselves to that potential liability".
You're right about that. This isn't the thing I try to say. National discrimination. This is the thing I try to say.
I don't know. Tomorrow, maybe GitHub or GitLab will block me. Why? I'm a potential.
Thinking about that, not good. Thinking about spying must be a thing for intelligence services, not technology companies.
You're right but Chinese and Russian developers are right too.
i understand what you mean, thanks for clarifying. This is a complex issue.
It's really frustrating to be living in a country where they don't hire people living there because they consider that particular country a "security risk". I can relate, I live in Sudan, another embargoed country. I heard Github has stopped private repositories for a few embargoes countries like Iran and Syria, but fortunately not my country.
Now, related to your topic, about hiring people living in those countries, those would have been remote workers if they were to be hired. And I believe what the employers are thinking is that there is much political tension between the country they're headquartered in and those above countries, is that they may be violating a U.S. directive or restriction and they prefer not to take the risk, I am not very sure about this. It's my speculation.