Our response to the war in Ukraine

As the global response to the tragedies in Ukraine and other impacted regions continues to evolve, I wanted to share with our community an expansion of the message that I shared earlier this week with our Hubbers.

GitHub is united with the people of Ukraine and the international community in condemning these horrific acts of violence against a sovereign nation and its people. We continue to monitor the events in Europe surrounding the unlawful Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

We care deeply about our global community, and many of us have loved ones all over the world, including in Ukraine, Russia, and other impacted regions. I grew up in East Germany during the Cold War, and I remember the happiness and optimism in the early 1990s that the world would come closer together. What we are witnessing now is something I never wanted to see again. It is devastating for the innocent people in Ukraine, and it is leading to feelings of helplessness and anger for those of us near and far away.

As the home of open source and the home for all developers, we take our role seriously in protecting open collaboration and the free flow of information in our interconnected community. This includes keeping the platform open and available to all developers, no matter where they reside. I want to share the latest updates on how we are responding as a company, as a platform, and as a global community of Hubbers.

Maintaining the integrity of our platform and company

GitHub is a powerful tool for communications, humanitarian work, and organizing for change, as well as for incredible technological advancement. We truly believe in the power of open source, so we will continue to work hard to keep our platform available and safe for all developers around the world. In parallel with our efforts to make sure GitHub is available to developers in all countries, we are continuing to ensure free open source services are available to all, including developers in Russia.

​​We are also committed to providing strong security capabilities that can prevent GitHub users and their accounts from compromise, and we urge developers to set up 2FA, ideally with WebAuthn, to protect their accounts.

At the same time, we are taking action to support our platform and comply with the many government mandates you’ve likely read about in the context of this war. Our legal team examines such mandates thoroughly, and we are complying with export controls and trade regulations as they evolve. This includes implementing stringent new export controls that are aimed at severely restricting Russia’s access to technologies and other items it needs to sustain its aggressive military capabilities. Additionally, any government takedown notices we process are publicly posted because we believe that transparency is essential to good governance.

Understandably, our community has had strong reactions to the conflict in Ukraine during this particularly stressful time. We are enforcing our Acceptable Use Policies and Community Guidelines to make GitHub safe for everyone. If you observe behavior that represents a potential violation of our Acceptable Use Policies or Community Guidelines, please report it.

The Community and Product Operations teams are monitoring conversations in our forums and making assessments that abide by our codes of conduct for community forum and public feedback. We will lock discussions that violate these codes of conduct.

Prioritizing Hubber safety and well-being

I want to be very clear: we stand by every Hubber around the world regardless of your nationality or country of origin. Your well-being is of the utmost importance and you have our full support.

Many of you have messaged me, the leadership team, and your managers looking for ways you can directly support those in Ukraine. GitHub always matches up to $15,000 in donations per Hubber annually, and the Social Impact team has shared a list of organizations in support of Ukraine where Hubbers can donate.

GitHub as a company is also donating $100,000 to Razom and matching an additional $200,000 of donations from employees to help support relief efforts in the region. This includes matching donations for any volunteering hours Hubbers spend working for charities and doing humanitarian work across the world.

I want to reiterate that we take our role seriously in protecting open collaboration and the free flow of information in our interconnected, global community. We will continue to closely follow the events and adapt as we learn more. And like many others around the world, we hope for a peaceful resolution for the people of Ukraine and other impacted communities. 💙💛

Written by

Thomas Dohmke

@ashtom

Fascinated by software development since his childhood in Germany, Thomas Dohmke has built a career building tools developers love and accelerating innovations that are changing software development. Currently, Thomas is Chief Executive Officer of GitHub, where he has overseen the launch of the world's first at-scale AI developer tool, GitHub Copilot -- and now, GitHub Copilot X. Before his time at GitHub, Thomas previously co-founded HockeyApp and led the company as CEO through its acquisition by Microsoft in 2014, and holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Glasgow, UK.