GitHub Archives Organic Maps Repositories Allegedly Due to Developer Sanctions

A web service for hosting IT projects and collaborative development, GitHub, has abruptly transitioned the repository of the project Organic Maps to archived mode (Public archive), without any prior notice or explanation. The repository remains accessible on the platform, but it is now read-only.

The developers of Organic Maps suspect that this action was prompted by an incorrect assessment by GitHub’s administration regarding the geographical location of one of their team members, which led to linking the project’s maintainer to a sanctioned region or company. One of the developers received a warning in their GitHub account regarding restricted access to private repositories and paid services due to being a resident of a sanctioned area.

According to OpenNET, the Organic Maps project is focused on developing a free mobile app for offline navigation, utilizing mapping data from OpenStreetMap. The project’s code is licensed under Apache 2.0. Organic Maps prioritizes user privacy by not tracking locations or collecting personal data. The project originated as a fork of the MAPS.ME application, created by its original authors after selling the app to Daegu Limited, which then adopted a proprietary development model.

In March 2023, GitHub unexpectedly placed the repository of IPMI Tool and all other projects by developer Alexander Amelkin into archived mode, without any prior notification or explanation. Amelkin is the maintainer of the ipmitool package, which is part of RHEL, SUSE, Debian, and several other Linux distributions. This widely-used open-source tool is essential for managing, monitoring, and configuring servers with BMC controllers that support the IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) standard. Amelkin has stated that GitHub did not provide any warning regarding the restrictions or clarify their actions. Industry experts discovered that, according to unofficial sources, the restrictions were likely due to Amelkin’s official employment with Yadro, which is a company that has come under US restrictive sanctions. As a result, the maintainer was forced to quickly migrate to the platform Codeberg.