GitHub has published a report reflecting notifications of intellectual property violations and the publication of illegal content received in the first half of 2022. Previously, such reports were published annually, but now GitHub has switched to semi-annual disclosures. In accordance with the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), GitHub received 1,200 takedown requests in the first half of 2022. There were 20 counter-notifications filed by repository owners against improper takedowns.
Due to complaints about violations of the service's terms of use not related to the DMCA, GitHub suspended 44,913 accounts, 356 of which were later restored. Access suspensions for account owners were made in 268 cases (16 accounts were then unlocked). For 2,617 accounts, both suspension and hiding were applied simultaneously (54 accounts were restored later). From a project perspective, 1,766 projects were disabled, with only 4 being reinstated.
GitHub also received 212 requests for user data disclosure (for comparison, 172 requests were received in the first half of 2021). Of those, 122 requests were made in the form of subpoenas (118 criminal cases and 4 civil), 56 were court orders, and 10 were search warrants. 98.1% of the requests were sent by law enforcement, while 1.9% were for civil claims. Out of 212 requests, 169 were granted, resulting in the disclosure of information about 1,361 accounts. Users were notified of the disclosure of their data only 3 times, as the remaining 166 requests were accompanied by a gag order.
Three demands for content removal were received from government agencies due to violations of local laws, two of which were from Russia and one from Australia. The requests from Russia were sent by Roskomnadzor and were related to blocking the activities of online casinos.
A certain number of requests also came from U.S. intelligence agencies under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but the exact number of requests in this category is not disclosed; it is only reported that there are fewer than 250 such requests affecting fewer than 250 accounts. 22 data disclosure requests came from foreign law enforcement agencies (one each from Argentina, Estonia, France, San Marino, Spain, and Switzerland, 2 from Brazil, and 15 from India).
During the reporting period, GitHub received 464 appeals (compared to 591 in the first half of 2021) regarding unjustified blocks when complying with export restriction requirements for territories (Crimea, DPR, LPR, Iran, Cuba, Syria, and North Korea), which are subject to U.S. sanctions. 355 appeals were accepted, 103 were rejected, and 6 were returned with a request for additional information.
Source: opennet.ru
